djjohnson

It is becomming time for all hospitals/transfusion services to think ahead----not only is the supply of even 'old' blood been in danger because of donations going down, new diseases, old diseases, things like TRALI, and worring about pandemics, terrorism, etc---if you wait long enough, hospitals will be forced into formal conservation, rather than moving toward them now. I, for one want the best my money can buy--not unreasonable to want that---why wouldn't I want the youngest blood for my hip replacement from the blood bank for my surgery? The situation could get to that point where patients demand the best--again, not unreasonable---but if surgeries and hospitals begin to use the best blood saving practices out there--the likelihood of the situations will be diminished. Go to sites like Society for Advancement of Blood Management (SABM).
For the immediate question for cardiac surgery, the 'freshest' blood is their own with cell salvage, and most of your hospitals doing cardiac surgeries already have perfusion teams using cell savers. Meticulous hemostasis in surgery, using latest techniques and technology, cell salvage, etc, are all part of blood conservation.
I know I am rambling now, but it was only a matter of time when yet something else will impact the blood supply. There are a handful of forward thinking formal blood conservation programs in hopsitals that do transplants and heart surgeries with little or no allogenic blood. We should all be thinking in that direction.