Ann F. Chambers, PhD

Conservation of blood is apriority during surgery, owingto shortages of donor bloodand risks associated with transfusionof blood products.[9,10] However,blood transfusions have been linkedto a number of negative postoperativesequelae, including poorer prognosisafter cardiac and cancer surgery.[11-21] In this context, recognition thatallogeneic transfusion-associatedimmunomodulation can increasemorbidity in allogeneically transfusedpatients has become a major concernin transfusion medicine.[9,22,23]