Diving and Blood Donation

[cat]

I've looked for solid information on this for some time with no real luck. Last year I got around it by not donating blood in "dive season" (ie I didn't donate if it was < 56 days before my next planned dive). This year the Blood Service in Canada is trying to stockpile blood now in anticipation of the havoc West Nile virus is poised to wreak on their screening system. I *should* donate. I *want* to dive.

How long should I wait post-donation to dive? I'm not talking about the 24-48 hour wait before any strenuous activity - I'm concerned with the fact that post-donation my hemoglobin level isn't where it should be. Commercial divers are banned from diving activities for "a time" after donation but I have been unable to find out what this time period is. Anyone have data? Thanks.

 

[scubadoc]

Here is a thread on this site that you probably can glean most of the info that you need.

http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1476&highlight=Blood+donation

 

[Wendy]

And good link to the past thread.

I donate every 8 weeks and hadn't thought about time between diving and donating. The red cross told me no exercise for 4 days after donating, so I just figured this included diving.

 

[Redshift]

Curious... I had thought of that a couple of days ago... Nice explanations from our doctors here on that thread

Only 2 months of interval? How much do you donate each time?
Here ir Portugal we give 400ml each time and men wait 3 months between donations and women 4 months.

 

[DocVikingo]

Hi Cat,

As you can see, there is some slightly divergent opinion on the wait. For maximum safety, the very conservative estimate of 72 hours suggested by DAN should serve you well.

Best regards.

DocVikingo

 

[Wendy]

Redshift once bubbled...
Curious... I had thought of that a couple of days ago... Nice explanations from our doctors here on that thread

Only 2 months of interval? How much do you donate each time?
Here ir Portugal we give 400ml each time and men wait 3 months between donations and women 4 months.

I don't know how much it is in metric, but we can donate 1 pint every 8 weeks here in the US.

 

[DocVikingo]

Unless a donor's hematological status is in some way abnormal, s/he sustains vascular trauma during donation, or there is some other unusual situation, a wait of 4 days before exercising seems rather unnecessary. After all, the official Red Cross recommendation is to avoid strenuous exercise or heavy lifting for about 5 hours after donating.

Next time you donate, you may wish to inquire as to the medical basis for the general recommendation reportedly provided by your local facility, and to ask specifically about scuba.

This is educational only and does not constitute or imply a doctor-patient relationship. It is not medical advice to you or any other individual, and should not be construed as such. If you have concerns, speak with your physician.

Best regards.

DocVikingo

 

[Redshift]

Wendy, I looked it up and found that one pint is 600ml.

How long does it take to replace the erythrocytes lost?

 

[DocVikingo]

The normal blood donation is about a pint, and normal adults have 10-12 pints in their body. As such, the donor is giving up only a small percentage of total blood volume.

It takes about 24 hours for the body to replace the donated blood plasma, and about 4-6 weeks to replace the donated red cells, although blood iron levels may not reach predonation status until 8 weeks after giving.

Erythrocyte recovery, however, really is not the issue in return to scuba--replacement of blood volume is.

In the healthy individual with a normal predonation red cell count & hemoglobin level, the red cells lost do not compromise oxygen or carbon dioxide transport to the extent that exercise capacity is meaningfully impacted. DCS risks would be essentially unrelated to erythrocyte status.

Best regards.

DocVikingo

 

[FredT]

I made the mistake of letting a neo-natal unit know I had O- blood. They used to call my boss when they needed it. Generally at 6 weeks plus a few minutes interval...

The shortest wait to water, with a serious effort at rehydration, was less than 2 hours.

My primary concerns are wound closure and dehydration. An easy dive the afternnon of a morning donation wouldn't bother me, but I would take steps to seal the wound a bit if I was to expose it directly to seawater. Say a bandage with petroleum jelly in it wrapped to the wound with an ace bandage.


Hard or potentially strenuous dives I'd wait untill the next day.

FT