Washed Blood Products

This chapter discusses washing of blood products during processing of the blood product. Washing refers to the process that removes the non-cellular fluid in RBC, platelet and other products and replaces it typically with saline. This procedure removes more than 99% of the plasma proteins and the original supernatant. Washing may be indicated for patients with recurrent severe allergic, anaphylactoid or anaphylactic reactions and in situations similar to volume reduction. Washing of RBC product is done be using 1-2 liters of normal saline by manual or automated methods and approximately 90% leukocytes are removed and the process may result in loss of up to 20% of the RBC mass of the product. Platelets can be washed with normal saline, saline buffered with ACD-A or citrate or platelet storage solutions, using manual or automated methods and washing results in loss of approximately 30% of the platelets but does not result in leukocyte reduction. The clinical indications and rationale for washed blood products are illustrated in a table. © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Author Beth H. Shaz Pathology