Use of donor blood in the surgical setting potentials for application of blood substitutes.

Red cell substitutes are being developed because of a perceived need in the medical/surgical community for a shelf storable oxygen carrying solution for use in cases of acute blood loss. In addition, there is a perceived concern that the allogeneic donor supply of blood and blood products poses significant risk to patients. Efforts to decrease the use of allogeneic blood would include "blood substitutes" for some applications. This article describes the uses of donor blood in a situational/temporal context and provides a model for consideration where in some current uses of donor blood banking may be replaced with a "blood substitute".