Blood Warmers - Basics
| What does it do? |
Blood is stored at 2 C° and needs to be warmed up during
blood transfusion to between 37 C° and 41 C°. This prevents
hypothermia (body temperature too low) |
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| Physiology
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blood loss the patient can suffer from anaemia (reduced number
of blood cells) and low blood pressure (from the loss of blood
volume) which can be life threatening. Blood transfusions are also often used for treatments of blood related diseases like leukaemia. The blood is warmed up to body temperature before infusing it into the patient. The blood must not be heated above 43 C° or the blood cells will die (haemolysis). |
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| How it works |
There are different types of blood warmers. Some blood warmers
have a water bath where the water is heated up to a set emperature
e.g. 40 C°. A blood bag is put in to this bath to warm up.
The other types (e.g. the Prisma Prismatherm) has a coiled blood
line around its body. While the blood is flowing through the
coiled blood line it heats the blood to the set temperature.
All blood warmers must have an overheat cutout thermostat to
prevent the blood from overheating above 43 C°. |
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| Units of measurement |
Temperature = |
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| Typical values |
Operation temperature 37 C° – 41 C° |
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| Picture of equipment |
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