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Uses of Substitutes

How could we use a blood substitute?

The primary use of blood substitutes is to overcome two current primary concerns in blood transfusion medicine, which are:

The safety of donated blood
Annual blood shortages (due to small numbers of active donors, and problems of recruiting new donors)

Several clinical targets have been identified where the use of blood substitutes could make an effective impact. These include:

Replacing blood loss during surgery or injury
Replacement of iron during surgery or injury
Preservation of organs required for transplantation
Roles in cancer treatment

Recently, scientists have realised that the use of blood substitutes should be not only in ensuring adequate oxygenation of a patient's tissues following blood loss in surgery, but also in maintaining an adequate blood volume and blood flow through the body's smaller blood vessels. Since such vessels are prone to collapse when blood volume and pressure is reduced during haemorrhage.

Some of the ideal uses of blood substitutes are listed below:

Ideal Use	Explanation
Coupling with autologous blood	A substitute would be administered together with pre-deposited (autologous) blood taken from the patient before surgery. This would ensure all of the properties of blood are maintained during surgery and reduce patient exposure to donor blood. This reduces the risk of disease transmission.
Supporting transfusion service in emerging countries	In countries with limited health care, blood donations and/or storage facilities, an effective blood substitute would prove invaluable. Donor blood supplies are often highly contaminated in countries, such as Africa, where AIDS is common and screening procedures are too expensive to be practical. A substitute would remove risks of contamination.
Saving lives on the battlefield or at sites of natural disasters	A substitute with minimal storage requirements could be administered on site to a victim with considerable blood loss, quickly and effectively. Loss of requirement for cross matching and blood-typing would revolutionise the speed in which effective treatment could be given.
Providing an alternative for patients who will not accept a blood transfusion, i.e. because of religious reasons.	Some people refuse life-saving blood transfusions on religious grounds. An inert substitute would provide an essential alternative to such patients.