# Unit of Blood

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unit-of-blood/8229>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 7, 2000, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unit-of-blood/8229 "2000-03-07T06:23:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![justwannano](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7ab992/32.png) [@justwannano](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justwannano)\
**Post date:** [March 7, 2000, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unit-of-blood/8229/1 "2000-03-07T06:23:00Z")

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Is a unit of blood actually a quart.  
Is it the same world wide.

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**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [March 7, 2000, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unit-of-blood/8229/2 "2000-03-07T06:48:00Z")

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First off, units of blood (often called pints) are virtually non-existent.

What is drawn by blood banks is between 450-500 cc of whole blood. This is almost always immediately processed & divided into components - plasma, platelet-rich plasma, leukocyte(white blood cell)-rich plasma, and packed red blood cells.

The whole quantity of RBCs in the original 450-500 cc of blood is now in 225-250 cc total volume, making storage easier & allowing the other components to be given to different patients. This maximizes the benefit from a single unit of blood.

I can only speak to standard practice in the US & in Germany, but can’t think of any big reason why there should be any variance in this.

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Sue from El Paso

Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.