Blood Transfusion Safety in the Operating Room

The aphorism “Blood Is Life” is likely truer nowhere than within the confines of the operating room. While blood transfusion finally became a life-saving reality in the twentieth century, thereby vastly expanding the range of survivable operations and injuries, it still remains an imperfect science, with both overt and non-overt risks and consequences. Potential safety issues regarding blood transfusion in the operating room range from risks posed by blood products directly and physiological alterations resulting from transfusion to the uncertainties that surround transfusion strategies and blood product selection. In this chapter, we will describe the most common safety concerns and measures of mitigation that pertain to blood transfusion in the surgical patient.