Prior to heart valve surgery, patients are faced with many, many, many questions. One of those questions is specific to potential blood loss during the operation. That question is, “Would you like to donate your own blood or use blood from the hospital blood bank?”

I’ve written about this topic of [1] blood banks and heart surgery before.

However, I just read an interesting article at the Mercury News which reveals that heart surgery patients treated with donated blood older than two weeks were more likely to die or suffer problems than those treated with fresher blood.

Which makes these findings even more problematic is that blood supply is chronically low.

“If the shelf life was reduced from 42 to 14 days, we just wouldn’t have enough blood around,” said Dr. Ross Herron, medical director of the American Red Cross Bay Area, which sends blood to hospitals throughout the East Bay and South Bay. “We need to have that shelf life to move blood around.”

I did not donate my own blood prior to my [2] aortic valve replacement. (Luckily, Dr. Starnes did not need a transfusion during my surgery.) However, given these findings I would probably change that approach if I was to need heart surgery again.

Keep on tickin!

About The Author: Adam Pick is a double, heart valve surgery patient and author of The Patient’s Guide To Heart Valve Surgery, a unique book which integrates the clinical facts of heart valve surgery with the personal experiences of 78 former valve surgery patients. [3] To learn more about Adam and his heart valve surgery book, click here.