SERIOUS AIR EMBOLISM DURING BLOOD DONATION

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Abstract
A partial review of the literature revealed a number of instances in which air was unintentionally injected into the veins of a blood donor, but usually this has been due to faulty equipment or to error in assembling the apparatus, so that air was literally pumped into the donor. There are doubtless other unreported instances of fatal or near fatal air embolism occurring during blood donation; two are known to us. McLean reports an instance in which air injection was narrowly averted and indicates that on many other occasions there was incontrovertible evidence that positive pressure had developed in donor sets without the assistance of pumps. The explanation of the development of pressure offered in his report is incomplete, however, and it is our aim in this paper to analyze a recent serious accident and to show an important and apparently unrecognized means whereby strong positive pressure may develop in

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