I am having surgery and my ob/gyn mentioned losing alot of blood. Would it be a good idea to bank some blood ?

Question

I am having surgery and my ob/gyn mentioned losing alot of blood. Would it be a good idea to bank some blood ?

Answer 1

That is a discussion that you need to have with your surgeon.

If it was discussed in terms of possible complications, then probably not.  If your case is one that your surgeon thinks is highly likely to have big blood loss, then you can donate your own blood for use during or after surgery.

If autologous donation leaves you a little bit anemic, that's not all bad.  You'll lose blood that has fewer red cells during the surgery, and replace it with blood that has lots of red cells after the surgery.  (Rarely, we even do that on purpose - called normovolemic hemodilution)

Good luck with your surgery.

Answer 2

I'm sure you will be okay unless your doctor has actually suggested banking blood. If there was a shortage or something he would let you know. If you have a rare blood type, ask your doctor about it. Thats the only sure thing to do.

Answer 3

yea it ill be... but make sure that you are doing the storing well before the surgery....as you dont want  to have a deecreased blood volume.... n the body nees to compensate for the blood lost duing banking

Answer 4

Banking blood is a good idea unless your doctor or surgeon believe that your condition would not permit you to do so.  Follow their advice.

Answer 5

If your surgery is soon then there is no point in banking your own blood. You would begin the procedure anemic because you would not have had time to replace the loss. The shelf life of donated whole blood is 42 days.

You don't mention how much the doctor meant by 'alot'. Are they talking a unit (400-500cc) or more than that.

If you are concerned, you can round up matching friends and family to direct donate to you, that is, they donate to the hospital's blood bank and direct that it be reserved for your use. This only works if they have the same blood type as you.

During most surgery, they work very hard to control bleeding using electrocautery, direct clamping and coagulant dressings. Anemic patients don't heal quickly.

Did your doctor state that most of the patients undergoing this procedure required transfusions afterwards? If the answer is no, then save your corpuscles and keep as healthy as you can before your surgery.