Abstract
Whole blood transfusion is among the most important items in the modern physician's therapeutic armamentarium. Its value in shock, exsanguinating hemmorrhage, and the preparation of patients for surgery is obvious; but its efficacy in chronic anemia is considerably less certain. | It is most important to have objective information regarding the value of whole blood transfusion in chronic cases. The very real dangers involved in blood transfusion as well as the scarcity of blood make this obvious. | A knowledge of the survival time of transfused blood would be extremely valuable. Published studies do not provide this information. | Crosby [1] published an excellent study on red cell survival in wounded soldiers in Korea, but this blood was universal donor blood and was studied by the Ashby technique. Other studies have concerned themselves with the effect of various preservatives or containers on red cell survival [2], red cell survival in a particular disease [3], or have utilized auto-transfusion into healthy donors [4].