Blood Bank (redirected from Blood banking)

blood bank, site or mobile unit for collecting, processing, typing, and storing whole blood, blood plasma and other blood constituents. Most hospitals maintain their own blood reserves, and the American Red Cross provides a nationwide collection and distribution service. The Red Cross collects about 50% of the blood for the nation's blood banks. The Food and Drug Administration licenses blood banks.

Whole blood may be preserved for up to 21 days without losing its usefulness in blood transfusions; an anticoagulant is added to prevent clotting. Blood plasma, the fluid portion of the blood, may be frozen and/or dried and stored indefinitely. Blood and donors are screened for hepatitis, AIDS, malaria, and other infectious diseases. The potential risk of acquiring AIDS or hepatitis through transfusions has made it a common practice among patients anticipating surgery to "bank" their own blood before it is needed.

Many blood banks also have facilities for apheresis, bone marrow donations, and related procedures. Some centers save umbilical cord blood (blood that is especially rich in stem cells) for use in treatments; however, the cost of preparing and storing such blood is much higher than that of normal blood. Sometimes parents store their newborn's cord blood at a private cord blood bank in case the child has need of it, but the use of one own's cord blood is ineffective or undesirable in many diseases where such blood is used as a treatment.

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blood bank

Organization that collects, stores, processes, and supplies blood. Most blood donations are separated into components, which can be frozen and stored longer than whole blood and used by multiple patients. In hemapheresis, large amounts of one component can be separated from a single donor's blood and the rest returned to the donor. Before World War I, a physician had to find a compatible donor and give an immediate blood transfusion. Safe storage of blood and its components made possible innovations such as heart-lung machines.

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blood bank

a place where whole blood, blood plasma, or other blood products are stored until required in transfusion

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blood bank [′bləd ‚baŋk]

(engineering)

A place for storing whole blood or plasma under refrigeration.

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Blood Bank 

in the USSR, a medical establishment that supervises medical facilities in the processing and transfusion of blood. Blood banks establish donor networks, keep records on and perform medical examinations of donors, and process and store blood and blood preparations and substitutes (and sometimes bone marrow) and distribute them to hospitals and clinics. Together with organizations of the Union of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies of the USSR, blood banks conduct active educational and organizational work to attract people into becoming donors (for example, donor’s days are organized). Blood banks promote the use of new techniques of blood transfusion and the use of new blood preparations and substitutes in hospitals and clinics. They also train physicians and paramedics and supervise the blood-transfusion work performed in hospitals and clinics.

Blood banks are under the jurisdiction of corresponding public-health departments and supervised by institutes of blood transfusion on procedures and organizational matters.