Blood transfusion Fact sheets

Fact sheets

Transfusion Fact Sheet

Our fact sheets provide basic information about blood, blood components, transfusion and related concepts. These are produced regularly, so the collection keeps growing.

The fact sheet collection can be searched in the Transfusion Resource Centre.

► View the Fact sheets collection

A Fact Sheet app is available for download so you can access the fact sheets from your iPhone or iPad.

If you have any suggestions for topics, or any feedback on the Transfusion fact sheets, please emailtransfusionlearning@redcrossblood.org.au

Some of our most popular fact sheets are available aspodcasts or on You Tube.

Our fact sheets library

Donors and donation

I need to know about donor deferrals

I need to know about donor selection criteria

Tell me more about donor selection

I need to know about donor selection

Can people who have had cancer still donate blood?

I need to know about haemochromatosis

I need to know about haemoglobin and iron

I need to know about iron deficiency anaemia

Mythbuster: blood group diets

Plasma donation: how does an apheresis machine work?

What is preoperative autologous donation?

I need to know about therapeutic donations

I need to know about travel deferrals

I need to know why blood stocks are sometimes low

Patients and recipients

What are transfusion adverse events?

Why do cancer patients need blood transfusions?

I need to know about haemophilia

Haemovigilance and patient safety

How is blood given to a patient?

I need to know about massive transfusions

Military history and blood transfusion

What happens if I need a blood transfusion?

I need to know about blood products for neonates

I need to know about patient blood management

I need to know about blood products in pregnancy

I need to know about sickle cell

Single unit red cell transfusion

I need to know about stem cells

I need to know about thalassaemia

What is tranexamic acid?

I need to know about transfusion during surgery

What happens when I receive a blood transfusion?

Who gets transfused red cells? Bloodhound on the trail!

Plasma and platelets

I need to know about albumin

I need to know about clotting factors

I need to know about cryodepleted plasma and TTP

I need to know about cryoprecipitate

I need to know about plasma fractionation

I need to know about fresh frozen plasma

I need to know about hyperimmune globulins

I need to know about immunoglobulin infusions

I need to know about platelets

What is Rh(D) immunoglobulin used for?

I need to know about subcutaneous immunoglobulin

Why do we make three different plasma components?

I need to know about warfarin

Processing

What happens to an apheresis donation?

What happens to blood in production services?

Unlocking the mystery of donation testing

Testing and safety

I need to know about bacteria in blood

I need to know about chagas disease

I need to know about chikungunya

I need to know about cytomegalovirus

Far North Queensland: the dengue district

What's DAT?

I need to know about DNA

I need to know about hepatitis

I need to know about herpes

I need to know about HIV testing

I need to know about HTLV

The flu and you

I need to know about irradiation

I need to know about malaria

I need to know about syphilis

I need to know about TRALI

Transplantation

I need to know about bone marrow and cord blood

Finding bone marrow donors

I need to know about cord blood transplants

I need to know about HLA

I need to know about HLA matched platelets

I need to know about paired kidney exchange

I need to know about tissue typing

Whole blood and red cells

I need to know about ABO

I need to know about D

Hot topic: the age of red cells

I need to know about the Bombay blood type

I need to know about cross matching

I need to know about Kell blood group

I need to know what's in a bag of blood

Why is whole blood split three ways?