Medication Deferrals in Blood Donors

Medication use is extremely common in blood donors. Blood centers use various methods to obtain a history of medication use, all of which have strengths and weaknesses. Some data are available to develop policies for medications that impact product quality, transmissible disease testing, and infectious risks. Many blood centers defer donors for use of a small number of highly teratogenic medications, as a precautionary measure. Others also defer for possible harms related to the pharmacologic effects of medications. However, a single exposure to a blood component containing medication, with immediate dilution in the recipient's blood stream, is a very different situation from ongoing use of medication in a patient, with steady state concentrations achieved over time. It is therefore highly unlikely that these effects are relevant for recipient safety.