The Benefits of Whole Blood

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Thank you for joining this ASCLS Webinar. The session handout can be found under the "Resources" tab.

Description

Presented by James Sikora, MD
Medical Director, Grady Health System

Low titer, cold stored type O blood (LTOWB) is gaining popularity across the country. Although whole blood was widely used in the past, the ability to separate blood into components largely made whole blood disappear from use. Now, the benefits for patients and providers is being realized and it has returned to the forefront of transfusion.

Learning Objectives
At the end of this session, the attendee will be able to:

Describe what is contained in low titer cold stored whole blood.
Identify the patient population that most benefits from LTOWB use.
Explain the benefits to the healthcare providers and laboratory provided by LTOWB use.

Instruction Level: Intermediate

ASCLS is approved as a provider of continuing education programs in the clinical laboratory sciences by the ASCLS P.A.C.E. ® Program.

Contributors

James Sikora, MD

Jim Sikora completed his medical degree at the University of Miami (2010) and his Master of Public Health in epidemiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2004. Dr. Sikora completed his residency in clinical pathology at the University of Florida (2018) and a fellowship in transfusion medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (2019). Dr. Sikora’s primary clinical/scholarly focus is massive transfusion and trauma resuscitation. His articles have been published in a number of leading journals including Transfusion, Journal of Clinical Apheresis, and Transfusion and Apheresis Science.