Effect of washing units of canine red blood cells on storage lesions

Abstract

Background: In humans, washing stored blood products before transfusion reduces storage lesions and incidence of transfusion reactions, but the effectiveness of washing canine blood is unknown. Objectives: The objective was to determine if manually washing units of stored blood would reduce storage lesions without adversely affecting erythrocytes. We hypothesized that washing stored units would reduce concentrations of storage lesions and cause minimal erythrocyte damage. Animals: Eight healthy research dogs. Methods: Repeated measure cohort study. Units of whole blood were stored for 28 days and washed 3 times with 0.9% NaCl. Blood samples were collected before and after storage, after each wash, and after being held at a simulated transfusion temperature. Variables measured included CBC variables, blood gas analysis, erythrocyte morphology, mean corpuscular fragility (MCF), and eicosanoid concentrations. A Friedman's test was used to evaluate changes in variables (P