The following information on informed consent ²⁴  was provided courtesy of the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB).

Informed consent refers to the permission you give a doctor or hospital to carry out procedures after you receive information about their risks and benefits.

To ensure that patients have the information they need to make an informed choice, at the minimum the information should include (taken from Annas’ The Rights of Patients) ²⁵:

1. A description of the recommended treatment or procedure.
2. A description of the risks and benefits of the recommended procedure; with special emphasis on the risks of death or serious bodily disability.
3. A description of the alternatives, including other treatments or procedures together with the risks and benefits of these alternatives.
4. The likely results of no treatment.
5. The probability of success, and what the physician means by success.
6. The major problems anticipated in recuperation, and the length of time during which the patient will not be able to resume his or her normal activities.
7. Any other information generally provided to patients in this situation by other qualified physicians. ²⁴

Patients and their families may be very concerned about transfusion-transmitted HIV. However, a complete and responsible presentation of transfusion risks includes infectious risks other than HIV, as well as consequences of transfusion that do not involve transmission of any infectious agents. Perhaps even more than for infectious risks, the consequences and relative importance of non-infectious risks of allogeneic transfusion also identify the types of patients and circumstances in which the risk is of unusual consequence or magnitude. ²⁴

A complete presentation of transfusion risks during a discussion between a physician and patient to elicit informed consent for transfusion includes the non-infectious risks that may be particularly relevant to the clinical circumstance. What follows in Figure 4 is a list of non-infectious risks, many of which may be reduced with the use of leukocyte reduced blood components.

* These risks occur with both allogeneic and autologous transfusion. The other non-infectious risks are restricted to allogeneic transfusions, whether from the general blood supply or directed donations. ²⁴

†  Sazama K. An overview of informed consent. In: Stowell CP, ed. Informed consent for blood transfusion. Bethesda, MD: American Association of Blood Banks, 1997: 4-5.

To be prepared, patients who are transfused with blood or blood product components should be informed about the benefits of leukocyte reduction, where possible, before they have a blood transfusion.