Donor Reactions and Traffic Risks in Autologous Blood Predeposits

Data of 956 patients referred to a regional blood center for participation in an autologous blood program were reviewed. Mild and moderate reactions appeared in 3.8% of phlebotomies, no severe reactions were observed. The specific risks of patients participating in an autologous blood program cover also traffic accidents while travelling to a blood center. For the studied sample the risk of injury is 1:9,523 for a single visit, increasing to 1:4,519 for 2.1 blood units deposited by each patient on average. The risk to die in a traffic accident is about 1:490,000 for one visit and 1:230,000 for 2.1 units. This risk is in the same order of magnitude as the risk of dying from a viral infection acquired by an allogeneic blood transfusion. Therefore the decision for or against an autologous blood predeposit has to be made individually for each patient.