USE OF SALVAGED RED CELLS

Abstract

When the American Red Cross Blood Donor Service opened its Detroit unit in November 1941 it was at once our desire to make use of red cell residues that were discarded after the plasma had been drawn off. However, it was not until July 1942, when Parke Davis & Company began to process plasma from the Detroit Blood Donor Center, that the opportunity presented itself. As there were no reports available on the use of cells which had been subjected to high speed centrifugation and few reports available as to the proper fluid for resuspending such cells, various studies were undertaken before these resuspended cells were used clinically. After the essential laboratory studies had been completed and nearly two hundred bottles of cells were administered to selected patients, approval was given by the National American Red Cross Blood Donor Service and the Surgeon General's Office of the Army to extend