coolants for shipping blood

[suhu]

We ship blood to our affliates daily, sometimes multiple times daily. Does blood "have" to be shipped on ice? Can cold packs be used?

We have a small ice machine that we use to fill bags, but it is cumbersome and we need to purchase better bags. Just wondering what others do...Thanks

[shelleyk482]

Get with your blood supplier and have them help you develop a packing system that is consistent with their requirements. We occasionally ship to some smaller related facilities and by utilizing a packing configuration approved by our supplier, we are able to retain our return priviliges.

[Malcolm Needs ☆]

The NHSBT specifically does not use ice when transporting red cells (danger of the packs touching the ice and resultant haemolysis). We use cold packs that have been kept at 4oC.

[Steven Jeff]

I concur with Malcolm on this, we can only use cold packs in validated transport boxes which can only be used for the transport of blood components. The cold packs must also have been kept at 4°C for at least 24 hours. Definitely no ice in contact with a bag containing red cells for transfusion

Steve

:)

[ABBWalker]

I tell you what I was discussing this the other day with the MOD in the UK who use some very expensive American made transport boxes which they use to ship blood all over the world and stays in temp range for 72 hours, which blows the std 4-8 hour box's away, if you drop me a private note I will put you in touch with the person from the MOD in the UK who can pass on the company concerned details.

Cheers.

[ar_confederate]

We use wet ice for RBCs. The ice is placed into sealed bags and then a layer of foam sheets is placed between the blood and the ice bag. The box and ice combination has been validated for 24 hours. For local (in town) deliveries, we use a validated ice chest and ice bags. For platelet products we use gel packs that have been conditioned at 20-24C for 24 hours. Obviously, for plasma, we use dry ice.

Another blood center I know of used conditioned gel packs that were placed in the refrigerator for a minimum of 24 hours in the place of the ice bags for the RBCs.

[mprandealr]

I wholeheartedly agree with my namesake, Malcolm, never ice, except in Gin!

Also don't forget tranport boxes including your cool packs that must be held at 4 +/- 2 for 24 hours prior to use need at least annual validation, and sop of how to peform the validation and the sop of how to write the validation, but theorectically should be 6 monthly to cover best and worst wheather conditions, unless you live in Las Palmas in Gran Canairia, oh I wish, enough of this cold/wet and dark climate:cool:

[L106]

Interesting. In the U.S. it is the normal practice to use wet ice as the coolant (separated from the blood by something like a foam sheet or bubble-wrap.)