How long can a blood transfusion last

Blood is a liquid that flows throughout the human body and has many functions. In real life, we can see that many patients need blood transfusions. This is because the defense cells in the patient's blood have been destroyed and cannot withstand the invasion of viruses. How long a blood transfusion can last is actually determined by the individual's physical condition. However, the life cycle of red blood cells in normal human blood is 120 days, and the principle of human blood transfusion is also based on the principle of transfusing blood of the same blood type.

The principle of blood transfusion is to transfuse blood of the same type. For example: Under normal circumstances, people with type A blood receive type A blood, and people with type B blood receive type B blood.

In an emergency, if people with AB blood type need a blood transfusion, the blood supply may be more than that of people with other blood types. But AB blood type is not a universal blood recipient. Although the serum of people with AB blood type does not contain anti-A and anti-B antibodies, their red blood cells contain AB antigens. If other blood types are used for transfusion, it is very likely to cause transfusion reactions. Therefore, AB blood type cannot accept blood of other blood types.

O-type blood is not universal blood, and the outdated idea that O-type blood is universal blood should be abandoned. Because O-type red blood cells do not have A or B antigens[1], O-type red blood cells can be transfused into patients with A, B, or AB blood types when the major-side matching is achieved. However, O-type blood plasma contains anti-A agglutinin and anti-B agglutinin. If red blood cell preparations containing O-type plasma are transfused into the bodies of A, B, or AB type patients, it will cause varying degrees of immune hemolytic transfusion adverse reactions. At present, most hospitals only transfuse blood of the same type.

If blood is transfused too quickly and in large amounts between people with different blood types, the transfused agglutinins will not have time to be diluted, which may cause red blood cell agglutination. Therefore, the principle of blood transfusion should be to transfuse blood of the same type. Blood transfusion between people with different blood types should only be used in emergency situations as a last resort.

Under normal circumstances, considering that there are many types of human blood type systems, for the sake of caution, even when blood transfusions are performed between people with the same ABO blood type, a cross-matching test should be performed first. That is, not only the red blood cells of the blood donor and the serum of the blood recipient should be tested for blood type matching, but also the red blood cells of the blood recipient and the serum of the blood donor should be tested for blood type matching. Only when there is no agglutination reaction when both blood types are matched, the blood are considered compatible and blood transfusion can be performed.