UAB Using Whole Blood to Improve Trauma Care
When someone is experiencing severe blood loss, that blood needs to be replaced as soon as possible. Most doctors deliver this transfusion as a “balanced resuscitation,” combining equal amounts of red blood cells, plasma and platelets, which is how blood is separated and delivered to most U.S. hospitals. But a balanced resuscitation is not the same thing as using whole blood that has never been separated, according to Dr. Marisa Marques, medical director of transfusion services at UAB Hospital.
“You’re not able to reconstitute whole blood just mixing the other components,” Marques says, “because each one of them is somewhat diluted with anticoagulant and other substances.”
Most of the research on whole blood transfusions comes from the military and treating injured soldiers in war zones. It suggests that transfusing actual whole blood to care for hemorrhaging patients can lead to better outcomes. Patients may require less blood to be transfused, and they often recover faster. UAB trauma surgeon Dr. Daniel Cox says another advantage of using whole blood, rather than separated components, is that it saves time.
“For the very seriously injured patient, this has the potential to significantly improve the chances of that person surviving,” says Cox.
UAB Hospital recently joined a growing number of hospitals across the country that use whole blood to treat severe trauma patients. Dr. Marques says finding a supply was not easy. It is not available from the local American Red Cross (ARC), where UAB gets most of its blood products. The hospital ended up having to get it from an ARC blood bank in Oklahoma.
Marques says whole blood has to meet strict requirements. To ensure that the product can be used for most patients, she says donors have to be male with low-antigen, type O blood. And timing is key, as whole blood has a shelf life of about three weeks, which is about half that of packed red blood cells.
UAB receives 12 units every week, which is less than 5% of the hospital’s total blood supply. UAB trauma doctors say that since they started receiving the whole blood in August they have used just about every drop.
Israeli soldiers fire on family car in occupied West Bank, killing 4
Israeli soldiers fired on a car carrying a family in the northern West Bank, killing four people including two children, the Palestinian Authority's Health Ministry said.
U.S. military names six killed in plane crash as Iran war enters third week
The conflict in the Middle East has entered a third week, with Israel announcing a barrage of new strikes on western Iran on Sunday, while the U.S. defense department released the names of six service members who died when their military refueling aircraft crashed.
Alabama poised to drastically overhaul utility regulation. Will it lower electric bills?
The Alabama Senate unanimously voted to expand the public service commission, and create a Secretary of Energy to address rising electricity prices. A bill in the House would go even further, requiring rate case hearings and limiting utility profits.
Acclaimed 20th century philosopher Jürgen Habermas dies at 96
Associated with the Frankfurt School, Habermas was a world-renowned thinker on modernity and democracy who helped shape German post-war and post-reunification political discourse.
Why the Chicago Bears could be moving to Indiana
While Illinois is trying to keep the team in Chicago's suburbs, Indiana lawmakers are offering a plan to finance a new stadium
Pentagon tightens controls over Stars and Stripes after calling it “woke”
The new rules for the independent military newspaper are the Defense Department's latest effort to put extraordinary restrictions on journalists covering the agency.
