Retrospective evaluation of unexpected events during collection of blood donations performed with and without sedation in cats (2010–2013)

Abstract

Objectives -Describe unexpected events (UEs) that occurred during blood donation in cats with and without sedation.Design -Retrospective observational study (2010 -2013).Setting -University teaching hospital.Animals -Client-owned healthy cats enrolled in a blood donation program.Interventions -None.Measurements and Main Results -Blood collection for transfusion was performed 115 times from 32 cats. Seventy donation events were in unsedated cats and 45 in sedated cats. For each collection, the anticipated blood volume to be collected, actual blood volume collected, sedation protocol, and any UEs in the peri-donation period were recorded. There were 6 categories of UEs: movement during donation, donor anxiety, inadequate collected blood volume, jugular vessel-related UEs, additional sedation requirement, and cardiorespiratory distress. Fisher's exact test was used to compare the frequency of UEs between sedated and unsedated cats. Unexpected events were recorded in 54 of 115 collections. In the donor population, movement was reported as an UE in 0 cats that donated under sedation and 24/70 (34.3%) cats that donated without sedation (P<0.001). Donor anxiety occurred in 2/45 (4.4%) cats that donated under sedation and 14/70 (20.0%) cats that donated unsedated (P=0.014). Unsedated donation did not increase the likelihood of inadequate donation volume, jugular vessel-related UEs, or cardiorespiratory distress. Eight of 45 (17.8%) sedated donations required additional sedation.Conclusions -Movement during donation and signs of donor anxiety were more frequent in unsedated cats. These were considered minor issues, expected in unsedated cats being gently restrained. Blood collection from unsedated feline donors is a viable alternative to sedated donation. Abbreviations UE -unexpected event

Xenotransfusion of canine blood to cats: a review of 49 cases and their outcome

“…The hospitals involved in this study do not have access to in‐house donors or a national cat blood bank (as is common for many veterinary surgeons around the world), and so organising a feline donation relies on contacting an owner with a cat on the donation list and arranging a donation for a mutually convenient time which can be many hours or even days after the urgent need for blood has arisen (Doolin et al . ).…”

Pet owners’ awareness of animal blood banks and their motivations towards animal blood donation

“…10 It can be difficult for animal blood donation schemes to find suitable donors and their recruitment can be costly, with feline blood donors noted to be particularly difficult to recruit. [19][20][21] Understanding the motivations of human blood donors is considered fundamental to improving the effectiveness of donor recruitment and retention programmes. [29][30][31] The most common motivating factors for human blood donors are convenience, prosocial and personal values, altruism, reciprocity and kinship.…”

Comparison of a closed system and an open system for blood collection in feline donors

“…These results are in accordance with those of other reports showing that, despite a variety of sedation protocols, blood donation is well tolerated by cats. 5,18,19 Despite the same environment before sedation for both methods, the mean systolic BP was unexpectedly higher with the closed system. It is possible that the phlebotomist was more stressed when manipulating the newly designed closed system, which was perceived by the donor.…”

“…Considering the small blood volume collected from cats, the use of a closed collection system for donation is rare, and the collection of feline blood has been performed mainly via open systems. 2,[4][5][6][7]12,17 For this study, we decided to design a closed system not composed of syringes, but rather one that looks like human and canine standard closed donation systems, in order to avoid points of attachment that can be disconnected, which could compromise the sterility of the blood product. Our goal was not to commercialize this system; as it is easy to produce, its availability is only dependent on the ability to invest in welder apparatus.…”

“…[1][2][3] Because of the small amount of blood collected and the lack of commercial closed collection systems, an open system composed of multistep manipulation of syringes is usually employed. 2,[4][5][6][7] Each point of attachment provides an opportunity for contamination. Therefore, the blood collection procedure in cats is considered to have a higher risk of contamination than in dogs or humans, precluding storage of feline blood products.…”