The management of the blood supply chain is considered of vital importance. The unavailability of blood may cause deaths and complications for patients. Conversely, wastage of blood generates high costs. Optimal decision making in the supply chain of blood products is required to minimize the levels of shortage and wastage. Due to the complexity and importance of the blood supply chain, many authors have developed research in this area. The aim of this paper is to provide a review of studies dealing with the blood supply chain. Thus, papers published between 2005 and February 2019 are analyzed and classified. The main contribution of this survey is providing an update of the literature review on blood supply chain according to a new taxonomy as well as a critical analysis of the state of the art in this topic. The proposed categorization includes: decision-making environments, issues in the design of the blood supply chain, operational processes, planning decisions, modeling and solution methods and data characteristics. The drawbacks and gaps in the current literature are highlighted, and potential directions for future research are discussed