Auto Donors and Dye Injections

[jhaig]

Is anyone aware of any contraindications for reinfusing autologous donor units after they have received any types of radiographic dye? We had a patient yesterday that had a stress test prior to auto donation that received some type of radioactive isotope (either thallium with a half life of 72 hours or it was another dye that had a half life of 6 hours). Our pathologist said that since it was OK to infuse the dye into the patient to begin with, then the patient should be OK to receive his own blood back should he need it. Should I be concerned with the unit and quarantine it just to be safe? Or is it going to be OK to give back?

[Malcolm Needs ☆]

The re-infusion of the blood is a clinical call that must be made by the doctor.

However, keeping the blood in quarantine, just to ensure that it is not given to anther patient by mistake must, surely, be of paramount importance.

[PSanai]

10 yrs ago I worked at the ARC in special donations. At that time we would defer an autologous donor for at least 72 hrs if they had a procedure performed with any dye. The concern was that if a unit is collected within 72 hrs after a procedure then that unit would contain the dye. Even though the pt didn't react to the first exposure they might have an allergic reaction to the second exposure to the dye when transfused with the unit.

I'm not sure if that is still the policy, but it was something we took seriously when scheduling donations for autologous pts.