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Review
. 2020 Dec;40(4):587-601.
doi: 10.1016/j.cll.2020.08.013. Epub 2020 Aug 8.

Blood Banking and Transfusion Medicine Challenges During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Andy Ngo  1 , Debra Masel  1 , Christine Cahill  1 , Neil Blumberg  1 , Majed A Refaai  2
Affiliations
Review

Blood Banking and Transfusion Medicine Challenges During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Andy Ngo et al. Clin Lab Med. 2020 Dec.

Abstract

SARS-CoV-2 (also known as COVID-19) has been an unprecedented challenge in many parts of the medical field with blood banking being no exception. COVID-19 has had a distinctly negative effect on our blood collection nationwide forcing blood banks, blood centers, and the US government to adopt new policies to adapt to a decreased blood supply as well as to protect our donors from COVID-19. These policies can be seen distinctly in patient blood management and blood bank operations. We are also faced with developing policies and procedures for a nontraditional therapy, convalescent plasma; its efficacy and safety is still not completely elucidated as of yet.

Keywords: Blood banking; Blood shortage; Blood wastage; COVID-19; Convalescent plasma; FDA donation policies; Transfusion medicine.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure Dr. Majed A. Refaai has received consulting fees and/or research funding from CSL Behring, Octapharma, Bayer, Instrumentation Laboratory, and iLine microsystems and has received speaking fees from CSL Behring.The other Authors have nothing to disclose.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
As elective surgical cases were canceled and blood utilization decreased in much of the United States, a trend of increased wastages was seen.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Patient blood management strategies.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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