What are the problems associated with autologous blood donation?
• In general, donation for autologous transfusion has the same minimal risk as any blood donation; bruising, fainting etc. Your doctor will decide whether you are fit enough to give blood safely. • Because of the need to collect several units of blood within a period of a few weeks, it will be necessary to take an iron supplement to prevent you becoming anaemic. • Technical reasons may prevent the return of some or all of the donated units. • If your surgery has to be postponed some or all of the units collected might go out of date and will have to be discarded. • It may be that you do not require blood for your operation and so all the time and effort spent collecting it will be wasted. • It may also be necessary to supplement autologous transfusion with blood from volunteer donors if a large amount of blood is required for the operation. • As with all blood there is a very small risk that it could be infected by bacteria present in the blood stream or on the skin at the time of coll
