Effect of Fresh Whole Blood Donation on Human Performance in United States Special Forces.

Background: Fresh whole blood has been the standard of care for the treatment of hypovolemia secondary to blood loss in the Tactical Combat Casualty Care guidelines since 2014. Current recommendations from the Prolonged Field Care Working Group state that the impact on mission performance is not degraded with 1 unit (450mL) of donation. Because there is limited information on combat performance after donation, the purpose of this investigation was to examine the effects of blood donation on simulated battlefield tasks in U.