General considerations of blood banking and transfusion in dog: a review.

This review is a practical aspect of transfusion therapy for dogs and of the blood banking process and transfusion standards. Many of these aspects are based of the current veterinary and human standards. The first documented transfusion occurred in 1665, and was made by withdrawing blood from one dog and replaced it with blood from another dog. Since then veterinary transfusion medicine has made remarkable progress, following close to our human contra parts. Whole blood refers to blood that has not been separated. Blood products are composed from blood components and these are prepared either by centrifugation or by apheresis. The use of blood components allows several patients to benefit from one donation and reduces the risk of transfusion reactions to unnecessary components. Both whole blood and blood components may be used shortly after the collection or after storage, Blood banking allowing the user access to both blood and blood components immediately. This procedures may be feasible to obtain and process blood on demand. However for emergency clinics with a large requiring caseload of transfusion therapy, blood banking is essential.