The best blood you can get in a transfusion is your own patient. The blood with it`s own DNA.
Allogeneic blood transfusion-free procedures include the appropriate use of medical strategies to treat anemia and/or thrombocytopenia, minimize blood loss, preserve autologous blood (autotransfusion), and increase anemia tolerance. Through the use of comprehensive and therapeutic solutions, it is possible to reduce the number of patients transfused and the amount of blood and its components administered to each patient. The benefits are not restricted to the economic sphere, but also to the incidence and severity of complications, particularly mortality, related to allogeneic blood transfusions.
After two centuries of blood transfusions, modern medicine faces the challenge of restricting more and more the medical transfusion practice.
PHYSICIANS and physicians treat the patient’s ANEMIA
THE PHYSICIAN of ALL PHYSICIANS treats the PATIENT who has got anemia.
The physician attention shall be the anemia’s patient, not the patient’s anemia.
Non-Transfusion Modern Medicine, basically because of two main reasons.
A The FIRST is the lack of blood and its components in Brazil and around the world. Blood is becoming a difficult therapeutic resource. Most of the blood banks around the world have reduced stocks, always below the ideal amount, even with innumerous efforts of governments and of the health professionals to stimulate blood donation. This is a real fact. The nearly possibility of no available blood for all the medical procedures has also become a more real fact. Thus, the importance of the doctor to know how to care and treat a patient with anemia without the pattern treatment of last century, by using blood transfusion.
A The SECOND reason, the main and the most worrying one, is the fact that the allogenic blood transfusions (other person’s blood) are related to several collateral effects. The transfusion blood is not different from a medicine given to a patient to treat determined health problem. As every medication therapy, transfusion therapy also has its adverse effects. National and international researches have initially demonstrated that the use of allogenic blood has an enlarged risk of transmitting some well-known types of infection, like SIDA, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, Chagas desease, Syphiilis, Dengue, Chikingunya Virus, Zika Virus.
In 2009, it was found that there are not only these, but there are at least 68 (sixty-eight) infection agents among virus, bacteria and protozoa which can be transmitted through blood transfusion. Besides that, recent researches showed other severe effects to the health of the patient who is submitted to blood transfusion, like heart attack, cardiac arrhythmia, stroke, lung problems, kidney failure, and multiple organs failure. These discoveries have worried the medical community.
Nevertheless, the major questioning about transfusion practice is happening now, due to several studies showing that transfused blood (allogenic) by itself has potential to cause the patient’s death. This goes against, according to these researches, all that medicine once directed about the use of blood.
DConsidering these evidences it is necessary to EVOLVE, ADVANCE. Medicine is a dynamic science and evolves according to the necessity. The challenge these days is a non-transfusion medicine, or, at least, more restrictive. Therefore the importance of disseminate alternatives and options of treatment so that the surgeon, anesthesiologist, clinic and/or the intensive care doctor, can avoid or reduce allogenic blood transfusion.
The patient tolerates anemia, the doctor cooperates with the patient in order to tolerate anemia.
The benefits of this non-transfusion medicine, better said, the benefits of implementing a program to keep the patient’s blood (Patient Blood Management – PBM) results in less time for the patient in hospital, minor risk of infections, minor risk of organs failure, and minor risk of death.
A Hospital in California (USA) did exactly this; by simply reminding the transfusion doctors the updated directions (MORE RESTRICIVE) concerning the use of allogenic blood (donated) has achieved a reduction of 24% (a quarter) the blood transfusions, and, this way, has saved US$ 1.6 million per year, and has also reduced the average time patients remained in hospital from 10.1 to 6.2 days. The main achievement of this attitude was SAVING LIVES, because the mortality rates among people who have received blood transfusions dropped from 5.5% to 3.3%.
Artigo: Poupe Sangue, Salve Vidas – PDF ~ 1,2mb
This is exactly what we would like to happen in other hospitals all around the WORLD.
NON-TRANSFUSION MODERN MEDICINE: less blood, more life.
After nearly half a century, the term “BLOODLESS” is increasingly gaining greater importance and popularity for three basic reasons:
- I – Blood transfusion results in greater risk than benefit;
- II – Blood for transfusion is scarce;
- III – Blood transfusion leads to the increasing of hospital costs.
Major hospitals around the world have sought to set protocols in order to ration the use of blood and this has become a hospital quality criteria as required by one of the leading certifying agencies, the Joint Commission International.
Aiming to disseminate clinical and surgical strategies for the management and conservation of the patient own blood (Patient Blood Management – PBM) and, thereby, to reduce or avoid blood transfusions, have emerged at least two medical societies:
Given the worldwide concern on transfusional safety, several international authorities, including governments such as Australia, have created a number of features to guide doctors and patients regarding the risks and benefits of a allogeneic blood transfusion.
Below are just some links that have commitment with the Patient Blood Management:
In video testimonials from Several International Authorities on Transfusion Safety
The great challenge of the medicine today is to get a substitute for the allogeneic blood. Researches are well advanced in this setting. It is noted a worldwide effort to change transfusional practice, if possible in the near future.
Unlike the last century, when a standard practice for treating anemia was a blood transfusion, today we already have the power of choosing.
This is real. Options exist. They are effective. They are safe. They save lives. It is everybody’s duty to know them.