When are blood transfusions necessary?

Blood transfusions are a fairly common medical procedure that are used for a number of different reasons. In fact there are some people who believe that they are being used more often than they should be. It is a good idea to know when a transfusion is really necessary so that you can make an informed decision about whether or not you really need one.

The most common reason to need a blood transfusion is for instance when you have a bypass surgery. In many different surgical procedures there is a considerable amount of blood loss and this normally requires a transfusion. By no means do all surgeries require a transfusion but most of the major ones do. Anytime that surgery is performed on the heart for example there is a pretty good chance that you will need blood. Because blood tends to be in short supply and there are risks to a transfusion surgeons are working to develop new techniques that will reduce the blood loss during the surgery. This should make it less likely that you will need blood as part of surgeries in the future.

The other likely reason that you will need a blood transfusion is that you are involved in an accident where you lose a great deal of blood. It is fairly common when you suffer a traumatic injury to lose a great deal of blood and this needs to be replaced in order for you to recover. In this case you will probably be given blood right away in the emergency room to make sure that you don't lose so much blood that you are not able to survive your injuries.

There are several diseases that are likely to require a blood transfusion as well. The most common are the ones that cause anemia like kidney disease or cancer. You may also need a blood transfusion if you have hemophilia since this is a disease of the blood. In some cases an illness will prevent you from making your own blood and this will also require a transfusion. With some of these diseases you will require regular blood transfusions as there will be no way to fix the underlying problem.

Blood transfusions are becoming something of a controversial subject because it is not clear when they are necessary. There is no standard that applies in all cases and doctors will use their judgement on when a transfusion is necessary. Not surprisingly this results in some doctors recommending transfusions when others would not. The problem is that there are potential side effects to transfusions so they really should only be used when necessary. The problem is made worse by the fact that the patient in many cases is not able to participate in the decision about whether they need the transfusion since this is often done when the patient is unconscious.