Military walking blood bank and the civilian blood service

In most countries whole blood transfusions have been replaced by component therapy. This has allowed for both better usage of the blood donations and better quality during storage. While this strategy was initially motivated by the commercial need for plasma the plasma reduction also reduced the levels of low grade proteases and sialidase, hence minimizing the cellular storage lesion/microvesiculation during prolonged storage. Plasma reduction also reduces transfusion reactions associated with plasma. During special military conditions, however, blood transfusion is urgently needed without corresponding access to blood components, in particular platelets. Accordingly, new focus on whole blood has aroused and added a new challenge to the blood transfusion services. This special issue of "what is happening" highlights the planed efforts by Swedish and Norwegian groups in the developments of military walking blood bank, which is applicable to civil blood services. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.