plasma thawers

[tkakin 37]

I am looking to purchase a new plasma thawer.  I have the Helmer DH4 water bath.  I read your reviews on the microwave and it will not be a good fit for us, because we do not thaw enough plasma to warrant having a water bath and microwave.  

I read Aunte D's post that you use the Sahara III and I am intrigued.  I looked it up online, but it doesn't give much info such as maintenance, limitations to products like the microwave has.  I would be most grateful if you could elaborate on your thoughts on this plasma thawer and some of the problems you have run into with its use.  I didn't see that it was FDA approved??

Does anyone use the Cytotherm if yes same questions as above. 

I appreciate your help

 

[RKB1988 1]

Anyone using a rapid plasma thawer? 

[tkakin 37]

Plasmatherm II- is that what you are referring to?  I am curious about it as well

On ‎1‎/‎31‎/‎2019 at 6:40 AM, RKB1988 said:

Anyone using a rapid plasma thawer? 

 

[srichar3 19]

I have used the Sarstedt SAHARA III for many years and they are very good, with regards to limitations I am not aware of any as such, they use dry heat to thaw the plasma and I don't ever remember one breaking down in the 3 different labs I have used them in. Maintenance is limited to wiping down the unit every week and cleaning out when you get a burst bag but they have a tray in the bottom to catch any leakage, I would take one any day over any water bath options. My current lab has an Helmer, I find it very slow compared to the SAHARA.  

[ANORRIS 96]

The Helmer rusts

[cswickard 208]

We use the Helmer D4 and have had it for years - it doesn't have speck of rust anywhere.  We only fill it with distilled water and use the Helmer CleanBath

Would the dry heat thawers work well for Plasma exchange transfusions?  The 4 well waterbath we have is not going to get through 16 units very fast.

[srichar3 19]

11 hours ago, cswickard said:

We use the Helmer D4 and have had it for years - it doesn't have speck of rust anywhere.  We only fill it with distilled water and use the Helmer CleanBath

Would the dry heat thawers work well for Plasma exchange transfusions?  The 4 well waterbath we have is not going to get through 16 units very fast.

When we did plasma exchange and had a single SAHARA we used to have to start thawing overnight to get it ready in advance, they claim 6 bag capacity but in reality I found it was hard to fit 6 in. One site I worked at that was a major trauma center and did heart and lung transplants and ECMO had 2 for this reason. 

[applejw 88]

We have Helmer D8s and recently installed 2 Sahara III - Sahara has little to no maintenance, easy to use - but VERY SLOW (24-35 minutes for 2 units) compared to thawing 8 units in Helmer (16 -20 minutes for E2555 products).  Great if you are thawing a couple of units for routine transfusion - not useful in hemorrhage/trauma situations.

[David Saikin 1,387]

I've used the cytotherms and the D4.  I think the cytotherms are a lot of work to keep up, especially if you keep them full.

I've had the D4 for at least 8 yrs - no rust but I keep it empty.  reasonably fast (16-20 minutes for 4u).  I can go for months without thawing a plasma.

[ANORRIS 96]

My Helmer D8 has a lot calcium deposits, which I thought was rust.  I use distilled water and Cleanbath.

Any ideas how I can stop this from happening?  I am on my 3rd order of new baskets.

 

[NWBloodBanker 0]

We have the same issue with the calcium deposits.

We have less than what you show in your picture and we use regular tap water.

I seem to recall reading somewhere that the dissolved minerals in tap water help prevent the calcium buildup.

 

If I find some information I will post here, I wish Helmer used the same material for the baskets as they do for the chamber as it is still quite pristine after many years of use.