A new study aims to prove whether or not fresher donated blood is better for transfusing surgery patients.
Currently, the FDA mandates that blood be used by 42 days after donation, the average age of transfused blood is 16 days. It has long been known that blood is less helpful to the patient than fresher blood, but there is no definitive research on how old is too old.
To answer the question, the National Institutes of Health will work with 15 hospitals to study transfusions in 1800 patients. Researchers in Canada will be enrolling 2,500 patients in an additional study, along with 1,000 heart surgery patients at The Cleveland Clinic.
The study was prompted, in part, by studies in Cleveland and Connecticut that showed patients given older blood required ventilator support longer, were slightly more likely to die, and experienced higher rates of infection and kidney failure.
The studies aim to provide more insight into when blood might cause more problems than a transfusion may solve, and when blood should be discarded to protect the health of patients.
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