Does anyone have a policy regarding expiration time on a Platelet Pheresis product once a 2-bag collection has been pooled into one bag?

If I'm not mistaken, I believe that it expires 24 hours after pooling together. It's been a while since I've dealt with one of these though.

We use 24 hours.

We get these sometimes and we use 24 hours for the expiration once the 2 bags are pooled.

We pool the two sides together just prior to issue, but I can't ever remember having one returned. Not sure if we'd place it back into storage, should one return to us.

We had an instance in which we pooled the two bags together just prior to issue, then nursing brought the product back because the patient had spiked a temp and the doc decided not to transfuse. We could not return the product back to our supplier for credit because it had been pooled into one bag. We now have a strict policy of NEVER pooling the double bagged products together. We tell nursing they can do it at the time of transfusion.

I checked with our Blood Supplier a couple of years ago and they say there is no need to shorten the expiration date if the units are pooled together since it's a closed system.

I then called the Red Cross because I knew in the past they had indicated the expiration should be shortened to 24 hours. I asked them where this policy had come from so I could follow up with our non-Red Cross blood supplier. They said they'd have to investigate. I talked to them after they investigated and they couldn't come up with a reference and to why this would need to be done.

I know in the past there was some concern on larger volumes and the gas exchange for platelets. If anyone can give me a reference, particularly something official, I'd really like to see it.

Thanks.

I would agree that 24 hours is probably safe.

It isn't a question of sterility - because it IS a closed system.

The collection devices used to collect apheresis platelets each have their own range of volume/ concentration/ yield that can be stored in one bag. Storing 2 products in one bag, may exceed the range of acceptability and compromise the potency of your product.

Unless you know which device collected that product,and the manufacturer recommendations for the storage environment in their platelet bags - you shouldn't store the 2 platelets in one bag for more than 24 hours.

We give it 24 hours from the time that the units are pooled

We also do 24 hours. The question is not whether the system is opened - that would give a 4 hour expiration. The problem is oxygen exchange with the volume of fluid per bag. Platelets have to breathe.

Does anyone have a policy regarding expiration time on a Platelet Pheresis product once a 2-bag collection has been pooled into one bag?

If a platelet apheresis product is divided into 2 bags, once the product is pooled into one bag, the expiration is 24 hours. We pool into one bag and change the expiration at issue.

We use 24 hours OR the expiration date whichever comes first. Our supplier will not accept platelet products back so once they are pooled we will accept them back from units provided they have not exceeded 15 minutes. The 15 minute policy is what we use as a time for red cells and platelets and has more to do with what nurses do with the products - put on top of air registers etc. - than acceptable practice.