Factors associated with successful autologous blood donation for elective surgery

Not all donors can donate the number of autologous blood units requested by their physicians before surgery, and donors are more frequently unsuccessful as more units are requested. Therefore, 368 autologous blood donors who were requested to donate 4 or more units during the 6-week period before surgery at one community blood center were studied. More men were able to donate 4 units with no deferrals for anemia than were women (86% [181 of 211] compared to 42% [48 of 115], P less than 0.001). Greater success also was observed among donors with an initial hemoglobin level greater than 125 g/L (12.5 g/dL), those with higher weight, and those with more advanced age. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that only higher initial hemoglobin levels (odds ratio, 3.3 per 10 g/L [1 g/dL] increment) and male sex (odds ratio, 2.7) were independent predictors of successful donation of 4 or more units.