Transfusion medicine

Transfusion medicine is the mainstay of treatment of animals with disorders of hemostasis. Naturally, when performing surgery on an animal with a hemostatic defect, strict attention should be paid to surgical hemostasis and the use of topical hemostatic agents, such as gelfoam or topical thrombin, may be useful. However, these procedures should never be relied upon to achieve optimal hemostasis, and replacement of missing factors is always desireable. A simple rule to follow is this: It is easier to prevent hemorrhage than it is to stop or treat hemorrhage once it has begun. The basis of transfusion medicine is component therapy. Blood components are under-utilized in veterinary medicine. However, with the advent of commercial blood banks, these products are becoming more available to the veterinary practitioner. These products are expensive and sometimes not readily available for use in a hemorrhaging animal, hence, sometimes there is no choice but to use whole blood for treatment, even when not optimal or advisable. This section of the module will describe the preparation of blood components and the use of these components and other drugs to treat animals with hemostatic disorders. Another important aspect of transfusion medicine that will be covered are the different blood types found in animals and the reactions that occur with transfusion medicine.

---