Directed Blood Donation

A directed donation is a blood donation from a parent or guardian to a minor child who requires transfusion. While there is no evidence that these donations are safer than those from regular anonymous allogeneic donors, CBS offers this service in order to decrease the psychological stress for parents/guardians whose children require a transfusion.

This type of donation must be authorized by the medical director of the hospital transfusion service in consultation with the patient's physician and the local Canadian Blood Services medical director. Pre-screening is required to ensure blood group compatibility.

Blood transfusion from related donors has been shown to increase the risk of transfusion-associated graft-versus-host disease (TA-GVHD).

This complication is common when the donor is homozygous for an HLA haplotype found in the recipient. To reduce the risk of TA-GVHD, all donations from blood relatives must be irradiated before transfusion.