In 1963 C. Paul Boyan and William S. Howland discovered that the temperature of the blood and the rate of infusion greatly affected survival rates, and introduced blood warming to surgery.Further extending the shelf-life of stored blood up to 42 days was an anticoagulant preservative, CPDA-1, introduced in 1979, which increased the blood supply and facilitated resource-sharing among blood banks.As of 2006 about 15 million units of blood products were transfused per year in the United States. By 2013 the number had declined to about 11 million units, because of the shift towards laparoscopic surgery and other surgical advances and studies that have shown that many transfusions were unnecessary. For example, the standard of care reduced the amount of blood transfused in one case from 750 to 200 mL. Special populations
Neonate
To ensure the safety of blood transfusion to pediatric patients, hospitals are taking additional precautions to avoid infection and prefer to use specially tested pediatric blood units that are guaranteed negative for Cytomegalovirus. Most guidelines recommend the provision of CMV-negative blood components and not simply leukoreduced components for newborns or low birthweight infants in whom the immune system is not fully developed. These specific requirements place additional restrictions on blood donors who can donate for neonatal use. Neonatal transfusions typically fall into one of two categories:

"Top-up" transfusions, to replace losses due to investigational losses and correction of anemia. Exchange (or partial exchange) transfusions are done for removal of bilirubin, removal of antibodies and replacement of red cells (e.g., for anemia secondary to thalassemias and other hemoglobinopathies).
Synthetic oxytocin, sold under the brand name Pitocin among others, is a medication made from the peptide oxytocin. As a medication, it is used to cause contraction of the uterus to start labor, increase the speed of labor, and to stop bleeding following delivery. For this purpose, it is given by injection either into a muscle or into a vein.Oxytocin is also available in intranasal spray form for psychiatric, endocrine and weight management use as a supplement. Intranasal oxytocin works on a different pathway than injected oxytocin, primarily along the olfactory nerve crossing the brain blood barrier to the olfactory lobe in the brain, where dense magnocellular oxytocin neurons receive the dose application. The use of synthetic oxytocin as an injectable medication for inducing childbirth can result in excessive contraction of the uterus that can risk the health of the baby. Common side effects in the mother include nausea and a slow heart rate. Serious side effects include rupture of the uterus and with excessive dose, water intoxication. Allergic reactions including anaphylaxis may also occur.The natural occurrence of oxytocin was discovered in 1906. It is on the World Health Organizations List of Essential Medicines. Medical uses
An intravenous infusion of oxytocin is used to induce labor and to support labor in case of slow childbirth if the oxytocin challenge test fails. Whether a high dose is better than a standard dose for labor induction is unclear. It has largely replaced ergometrine as the principal agent to increase uterine tone in acute postpartum hemorrhage.