Few medical procedures are as closely linked to the realities of armed conflict as blood transfusion. In environments dominated by explosions, penetrating trauma, and mass casualty incidents (MCI), outcomes are determined not by refined diagnostics but by how rapidly adequate oxygenation and stable coagulation can be restored. Military settings have repeatedly acted as catalysts for medical innovation. Under these conditions, new transfusion medicine concepts were standardized and introduced into broad clinical practice or abandoned when safety concerns emerged. This article traces these developments from the perspectives of technical feasibility, organizational implementation, and operational medical practice. Particular attention is given to compatibility, which became reliably manageable only after the discovery of the ABO blood group system, as well as to the introduction of anticoagulation and blood storage. The establishment of blood banks and military blood programs is also addressed. In addition, operational treatment concepts are described, including forward medical care, the use of whole blood and freeze-dried plasma, and so-called walking blood banks (WBB), defined as rapid whole-blood donation by pre-screened personnel when conventional supply chains are unavailable.
Ammann et al. (Thu,) studied this question.