Blood is an important constituent of the human body. It is the factor responsible for sustaining life itself. Blood is the life-maintaining fluid that circulates through the body’s heart, arteries, veins and capillaries. In case of any lose of blood the need for blood transfusion arises thus the importance of blood banks.

A blood bank is a bank of blood or blood components, gathered as a result of blood donation, stored and preserved for later use in blood transfusions. History of Blood Banks 1901 Karl Landsteiner, an Austrian physician, whom we see as the most important individual in the field of human Blood, categorized the first three human Blood groups A, B and O. Without this discovery and the subsequent research, there would be no Blood banking. 1936 Bernard Fantus, director of therapeutics at the Cook County Hospital in Chicago, established the first Blood bank in the United States, creating a hospital laboratory that can preserve and store donor Blood 1940 Dr Charles Drew, a graduate of McGill University Medical School in Montreal, researched and found a technique for long-term preservation of Blood plasma.

1947 The American Association of Blood Banks (AABB) was formed to “promote common goals among Blood banking facilities and the American Blood donating public.” 1950 Carl Walter and W.P. Murphy, Jr., introduced the plastic bag for blood collection. Replacing breakable glass bottles with durable plastic bags allowed for the evolution of a collection system capable of safe and easy preparation of multiple blood components from a single unit of Whole Blood. 1979 An anticoagulant preservative, CPDA-1 was introduced. It decreased wastage from expiration and facilitated resource sharing among blood banks. Newer solutions contain adenine and extend the shelf life of red cells to 42 days.

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