A blood product is any component of the blood

Blood

Blood is a specialized bodily fluid in animals that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells....

 which is collected from a donor for use in a blood transfusion

Blood transfusion

Blood transfusion is the process of receiving blood products into one's circulation intravenously. Transfusions are used in a variety of medical conditions to replace lost components of the blood...

. Whole blood

Whole blood

Whole blood is a term used in transfusion medicine for human blood from a standard blood donation. The blood is typically combined with an anticoagulant during the collection process, but is generally otherwise unprocessed...

 is uncommonly used in transfusion medicine

Transfusion medicine

Transfusion medicine is the branch of medicine that is concerned with the transfusion of blood and blood components. The blood bank is the section of the clinical laboratory where medical technologists process and distribute blood products under the supervision of a medical director, often...

 at present; most blood products consist of specific processed components such as red blood cell

Red blood cell

Red blood cells are the most common type of blood cell and the vertebrate organism's principal means of delivering oxygen to the body tissues via the blood flow through the circulatory system...

s, blood plasma

Blood plasma

Blood plasma is the straw-colored liquid component of blood in which the blood cells in whole blood are normally suspended. It makes up about 55% of the total blood volume. It is the intravascular fluid part of extracellular fluid...

, or platelet

Platelet

Platelets, or thrombocytes , are small,irregularly shaped clear cell fragments , 2–3 µm in diameter, which are derived from fragmentation of precursor megakaryocytes.  The average lifespan of a platelet is normally just 5 to 9 days...

s.

Relation to other substances

Blood products may also be called blood-based products to differ from blood substitutes

Blood substitutes

A blood substitute is a substance used to mimic and fulfill some functions of biological blood, usually in the oxygen-carrying sense...

, which generally refer to artificially produced products. Whole blood

Whole blood

Whole blood is a term used in transfusion medicine for human blood from a standard blood donation. The blood is typically combined with an anticoagulant during the collection process, but is generally otherwise unprocessed...

 may be classified as a blood product or as a separate entity. Also, although many blood products have the effect of volume expansion, the group is usually distinguished from volume expander

Volume expander

A volume expander is a type of intravenous therapy that has the function of providing volume for the circulatory system. It may be used for fluid replacement.-Physiology:...

s, which generally refer to artificially produced substances and thereby within the scope of blood substitutes.

Examples

Examples include cryoprecipitate

Cryoprecipitate

Cryoprecipitate, also called "Cryoprecipitated Antihemophilic Factor", "Cryoprecipitated AHF", and most commonly just "cryo", is a frozen blood product prepared from plasma.It is often transfused as a four to six unit pool instead of as a single product...

, PF24

PF24

Plasma Frozen Within 24 Hours After Phlebotomy, commonly called FP24, PF-24, or similar names is a frozen human blood plasma product used in transfusion medicine. It differs from fresh-frozen plasma in that it is frozen within 24 hours of blood collection, whereas FFP is frozen within 8 hours...

, fresh frozen plasma

Fresh frozen plasma

The term fresh frozen plasma refers to the liquid portion of human blood that has been frozen and preserved after a blood donation and will be used for blood transfusion...

 and cryosupernatant

Cryosupernatant

The term cryosupernatant refers to plasma from which the cryoprecipitate has been removed.-Components:...

.