STUDIES ON PRESERVED HUMAN BLOOD: I. VARIOUS FACTORS INFLUENCING HEMOLYSIS

The current interest in the use of preserved human blood for transfusions has been especially motivated by economic pressure in the United States and by military necessity in Europe. Hence the empirical clinical use of transfusions of preserved blood has tended to precede rather than to follow fundamental objective biologic and chemical studies in the laboratory.A review of the literature reveals few data from which the clinician can establish satisfactory criteria for the use or rejection of preserved blood. Two factors appear to have contributed to this paucity of laboratory observations: first, the practice of blood transfusion has been so extensive and the indications have been so diverse that it is often difficult for the clinician to define precisely which elements of the transfused blood he most desires his patient to receive; second, the exact mechanism of the production of the various reactions from blood transfusions is not well