Status of the Use of Universal Donor Blood Transfusion

Risks and adverse outcomes associated with emergency‐release red blood cell transfusion

“…Overall, the benefits of the use of ERT outweigh the risks. This has been shown time and time again in the military setting . Although the military population is unique in that it is almost exclusively (especially historically) composed of young, healthy men, the conclusion that this is a safe practice has been extrapolated into the civilian population.…”

“…Additionally, we did not identify a single acute hemolytic transfusion reaction in our study population. Reports of acute hemolytic reactions in the military studies were often due to isoagglutinins in group O whole blood or due to clerical errors and the use of type‐specific blood …”

“…In the military setting, the population studied was mostly young and otherwise healthy men, which differs significantly from a typical civilian population. This is particularly true with regard to alloimmunization, which tends to be infrequent in healthy, young men and higher in older men with comorbidities, multiparous women, or previously transfused patients …”

“…This is particularly true with regard to alloimmunization, which tends to be infrequent in healthy, young men and higher in older men with comorbidities, multiparous women, or previously transfused patients. 6 The use of uncrossmatched group O RBC transfusion as a lifesaving measure eliminates the risk of acute intra-vascular hemolysis due to anti-A and anti-B isoagglutinins, but still carries a risk of alloimmunization to non-ABO RBC antigens and subsequent delayed hemolysis. In a retrospective study conducted by Saverimuttu and colleagues 7 on 27,968 antibody screens, the prevalence of clinically significant antibodies was shown to be 1.9%.…”

Problems Associated With Passively Transfused Blood Group Alloantibodies

“…Thousands of units of whole blood from "safe" (ABO antibody titers <200) group O donors were transfused to group A and B recipients in the Korean and Vietnam wars, with few ill effects. 8 ' 9 Schwab et al 1 0 performed a 2-year prospective study using group O uncrossmatched packed RBCs for trauma cases and found no hemolytic transfusion reactions after 880 transfusions.…”