BLOOD DONATION IN DONORS WITH ARTERIAL HYPERTENSION: CURRENT ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA AND CHALLENGES
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https://doi.org/10.35120/medisij0503147bAbstract
Blood donation occupies a central place in modern transfusion medicine and is essential for ensuring timely and safe transfusion therapy. The effective functioning of transfusion systems depends directly on maintaining a stable pool of voluntary and regular blood donors, which requires optimization of donor selection while strictly adhering to medical and ethical principles for protecting donor health.
Over recent decades, chronic non-communicable diseases have tended to occur at younger ages worldwide, changing the health profile of potential donors and creating new challenges for transfusion medicine. Conditions traditionally associated with older age are increasingly being seen in younger people, resulting in a growing proportion of individuals with chronic conditions who are willing to participate in blood donation programs. In this context, arterial hypertension has become one of the most common chronic conditions and affects a substantial proportion of working-age adults, including potential blood donors. Its increasing prevalence poses challenges for transfusion practice, particularly with regard to reconsidering traditional eligibility criteria, individual risk assessment, and ensuring donor safety during and after donation.
Historically, arterial hypertension was often regarded as a relative or absolute contraindication to blood donation because of concerns about adverse hemodynamic reactions. Current scientific evidence and international guidelines support a more differentiated approach in which the degree of blood pressure control, the stability of antihypertensive therapy, and the absence of clinically significant complications are the key considerations. Accordingly, the presence of arterial hypertension alone is increasingly recognized as not constituting an automatic contraindication to blood donation.
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