donellda Posted June 30, 2006 Share Posted June 30, 2006 Our trauma physicians developed a policy for massive transfusion that we call the "Red Chest Policy". When a trauma comes to our ER where the patient is to be massively transfused, in our case it's usually a multiple gunshot, the ER calls and alerts us they are coming for the red chest. We always have 6 pretagged O negative packed cells ready for emergency release. When they come for the red chest, it is part of the policy for us to thaw 4 units of AB FFP. If we have a specimen for the patient, we do a quick blood type and thaw type specific.The problem is, I have concerns that we may start to waste FFP because it is not always used after it is thawed. We have a real problem keeping an inventory of AB FFP due to lack of availabity and cost. We do convert our thawed FFPs to thawed plasma after 24 hours. I had decided to keep a small inventory of AB jumbo FFPs which are pheresis units for trauma use. We can sometimes get a few more jumbos from our supplier. I noticed the other day in the AABB Technical Manual that plasma pheresis units cannot be converted to thawed plasma. It says the outdate must be 24 hours. This breaks my heart:heartbreabecause I really don't want to waste jumbos. What is the difference between a thawed plasma pheresis and a thawed FFP? The only thing I can think of is the pheresis process itself that may affect some of the factors. Does anyone know? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmarotto Posted June 30, 2006 Share Posted June 30, 2006 I believe the reason is that pheresis plasma is considered an open system. Preparing plasma from whole blood collected in double packs is a closed system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
donellda Posted June 30, 2006 Author Share Posted June 30, 2006 I guess that makes sense. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John C. Staley Posted July 5, 2006 Share Posted July 5, 2006 Actually it dosen't make sense. Why would a platelet pheresis stored at room temp have a 5/7 day out date and the same technology producing the plasma stored at 1-6oC have a 24 hour outdate? Now the story I heard is that the anticoagulant used was different and had not been validated for use as 5 day plasma. I'm sure there are probably other stories out there as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
donellda Posted July 5, 2006 Author Share Posted July 5, 2006 The beat goes on. :cool: Hopefully, when we use our jumbos they will be used within 24 hours. The Technical Manual gave no explanation. Maybe I'll do a search to see if I can find anything else out. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmarotto Posted July 5, 2006 Share Posted July 5, 2006 I am not familiar with the pheresis kits used to collect plasma but the platelet kits are functionally closed systems with sterile barrier filters on the lines used to connect the prime saline and anticoagulant. Red cells collected by pheresis would also have to be functionally closed to allow storage >24 hours. Is there anyone here from a blood center to enlighten us whether the plasma collection sets are closed systems? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tricore Posted July 6, 2006 Share Posted July 6, 2006 The kits used by our blood center for the collection of plasma are "open" meaning that the antigoagulant for the collection are not attached to the kit. The bags have to be spiked, making the collection "open". Kits for the collection of platelets by apheresis come with the anticoagulant attached. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John C. Staley Posted July 6, 2006 Share Posted July 6, 2006 Now that's interesting. Back in the olden days when I was involved with donors I seem to remember that the sets for the apheresis machines didn't vary only the settings on the machine changed based on what you wanted to collect. Of course my memory is failing daily so I could be really off base here. I hope some one does come up with the difinitive answer some day. Maybe it's just that nobody thought of it. Sounds like another good SBB student project. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
donellda Posted July 7, 2006 Author Share Posted July 7, 2006 I talked to the donor center who supplies us with most of our FFP. They said that the procedure that they use for plasma pheresis is a closed system. Is it possible that AABB gave the 24 hour expiration for all plasma pheresis because some methods for collection are open and others are closed making it too hard to determine which system different donor centers use? (It's a long sentence, I know:)). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJDrew Posted January 25, 2007 Share Posted January 25, 2007 Ok, all--I just received a product that I had not seen before. It is "single donor plasma (human) fresh frozen flat pack". On the bright yellow box, which is the size of a normal FFP, it states, "store below -18C, thaw at 37C and use within 6 hours. Six hours??? Why not 24 hours? I have called the blood center & left a message for an explanation, but thought I'd post this latest permutation. Our question is, can this stuff be coverted to thawed plasma at kept at 1-6C for 5 days? From the package, this doesn't appear to be the case, but I don't know if it's due to an open system, anticoagulant, or what the heck else... All this doo dah about plasma really ticks me off. I wish there was ONE SOURCE we could go to for definitive answers as to WHY all these different "requirements" exist, and settle all this confusion once and for all! MJ :cool: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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