The hepatic disturbance appears about 15% after blood transfusion even when HBs antigen screening is performed on donors. For preventing hepatitis after blood transfusion as utilizing the strong antibody activity of Venoglobulin (VG) against hepatitis viruses which might be in the transfused blood, VG Research Group was organized under the leadership of Prof. Yamamura at Tokyo University, including eleven facilities. On blood transfusion, 250mg VG was added to each one unit of the blood, and after more than one hour, the blood was transfused. Before transfusion and every or every other week after transfusion, the liver functions, HBs antigen, and antibody were observed. The course was also observed for more than 12 weeks. The subjects consisted of 380 cases in the VG group and 378 cases in the control group. The data of the cases in all the facilities were collected and researched statistically to get the following results.
1) The appearance of hepatic disturbance after blood transfusion was 5% in the VG group and 13.7% in the control (p<0.01). The difference was not consistent with the original disease, the quantity of the transfused blood, and sex, and any consistent tendency was not recognized. 2) The appearance of jaundice was 1.3% in the VG group and 5.5% in the control (p<0.01) 3) The appearance of HBs positive hepatitis was not different between the both groups, while the appearance of negative hepatitis was 4.8% in the VG group and 14% in the control group (p<0.05). 4) According to the above described results, addition of VG to the transfusion blood is very effective on prevention on non-A, non-B hepatitis, especially prevention of jaundice.

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Factors affecting the results of platelet transfusions are classified in three groups: A. factors related to platelets include, kinds of platelet presparations (PRP, PC, AC), dose, freshness and presence of white cells and ABO incompatible red cells. B. factors related to conditions of recipients include, fever, presence of alloantibodies and underlying diseases (ITP, Splenomegaly, DIC, etc.) C. others include effect of drugs such as Aspirin.
In this review, these factors were discussed in detail. Average dose of platelet concentrates used in Japan is from about 1000ml of whole blood, and is too low to produce effective hemostatic effect. It is urged that platelet concentrates from at least 4000ml of whole blood is used for each platelet transfusion. Platelet rich plasma may be substituted to platelet concentrates when supply of donors are insufficient.
It is also urged that indications for platelet transfusions should be carefully selected, and thoughtless habit of using whole blood should be switched to use of packed red cells to minimze the chance of alloimmunization. Use of HL-A identical donors should be considered in the case of alloimmunized patients.

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