We're heard different opinions about it, but many patients and even some transfusion experts say that it makes sense for people who need regular and repeated transfusions to receive the freshest blood possible. The freshness of blood should be less of an issue to people having a one-time need, such as elective surgery or blood transfusions after an accident.
The number of units of transfused blood you get can be a negative factor down the road. First of all, iron overload depends on the number of units transfused. Second, patients who are candidates for transplants do best (in a statistical sense) when they have had as few transfusions as possible. For both reasons that means that you want each transfusion to last you as long as possible.
So what's the problem with getting fresh blood if it's available? Having priorities for who gets the freshest blood is apparently a logistical and maybe even an ethical or legal problem for blood banks, and many hospitals and blood banks don't seem to have faced the issue head-on.
That leaves it to individual patients to ask for the freshest blood they can get, and talk to their doctors and blood banks
ahead of time (not at the moment the blood is being delivered) to push them toward a policy that matters for your health, and be a squeaky wheel.
Not everyone has the personality to "fight the system" this way, and as patients we certainly have many other things to worry about, but for those who want to make the effort I think there are two approaches worth pursuing:
1. The institution. Talk to people who run the blood bank or the treatment center and ask them why patients who need regular transfusions should not be given priority for fresh blood when freshness is not important to other patients.
2. The doctor. Even if the institution doesn't have a policy to give you the freshest blood possible, ask your doctor if he or she would be willing to make "blood, as fresh as possible" part of his or her orders for your transfusion. The blood bank may be willing to follow the doctor's order.