Correct me if i am wrong!!

Hi

I was told that a single transfusion increases the HB by one gram, so does this mean if the HB is 5 for example , you need 5 to six transfusions to be above 10 ?? How many transfusions makes one dependent??

Thanks
Manal

Hi Manal
The increase in hb depends upon the hematocrit of the donor blood. Higher the hematocrit, higher will be the increase in hb. There have been times when Hassan`s hb has increased upto 5gm/dl with a single transfusion and the amt of blood transfused has always been 15ml/kg. Hypertransfusions over a period of time ( a year or so) makes one transfusion dependent. To maintain a pre-transfusion hb of 10 then you might require 5-6 transfusions.
take care
MAHA

Thank you Maha for your reply

So does hematocrit gets affected by storing the doner blood for long periods of time?

Manal

hi,

By my expirience, my HB would increase about 1 1/2 gram per bag. So if my HB was 6 and i tranfused 2 bags of blood, my Hb would increase to around 9.

Maybe it works differently with everybody else but for me, i find that this method goes well with my body and i've been using it for such a long time as an unofficial guide. I can briefly calculate how many bags of blood i should request from the blood bank.

i read formula for calculating raise in hb in books by itf  ... its as

        Amount of blood transfused ( ml )
 =  ____________________________________
             3 x body weight in Kg


But...

   haemolysis splenectomy hepatitus and general physical health of the patient are variable factors...

Illustration :

 I'm not splenectomized ... HepC there but not active ...never a problem in hormones or wutever ... means apart from transfusion i'm totally fit now :

I weigh 44 kg  and if my

H b  is 9.0  pre trans

 then after trans of 1 unit RBC (250 milli litres) my Hb goes to 10.8 ... and from more than 4 years i've been calculating my hb's and nearly everytime its near the approximate ...


But beware that there are variables that might distort estimate