Transfusion medicine: an overview and update.

The discovery of AIDS in the 1980s and its rapid evolution as a major concern for physicians and their patients have led to many questions about the safety of the blood supply. The attention placed on AIDS has led to new discoveries and technologies to reduce the risk of other transfusion complications such as hepatitis, bacterial contamination, and transfusion-associated graft-vs-host disease. Concerns about blood safety have focused much attention on alternative blood transfusion strategies such as autologous blood, viral inactivation, and artificial blood substitutes. This review describes the transfusion medicine delivery system in the United States, with special emphasis on evolving developments and their implications for the discipline of chemical pathology.