Autologous Donation

Blood donated by an individual for his or her exclusive use is referred to as an autologous or self-donation. The primary advantage of autologous donations is simple: your own blood is an exact blood match with no crossmatching issues.

Florida's Blood Centers provides both short-term and long-term blood storage. Short-term donated blood is kept refrigerated (maximum of 42 days) while long-term blood is frozen (up to 10 years).

Individuals preparing for elective surgery are primary candidates for autologous donations. In this case, the individual's physician must sign a request for the autologous donation procedure, which may allow the person to donate as frequently as every two weeks. The donated blood will then be stored in liquid form and be delivered to the hospital for use during the patient's surgery.

Long-term frozen storage enables a donor to build up a reserve of their blood over time. Because of the length of time to thaw and process frozen blood, it is not suitable for emergency situations.

Frozen blood storage requires special care and monthly storage charges, which can be costly for donors. People with reoccurring ailments such as bleeding ulcers are good candidates for long term frozen storage.

Recent data indicate that autologous blood accounts for 4.6 percent of all donated blood. Almost half of all autologous donations are not used by the donor, and many of these units are discarded because this autologous blood may not be suitable for transfusion to another patient.

A written order from the patient's physician is required prior to autologous blood collection.

Contact Us Regarding Autologous Donations

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