Like to take a poll of those who have validated coolers, igloo containers, to satisfy aabb. Have you done it in a real transfusion scenario, following the transporter to the unit and taking temp or have you done it in a non-transfusion scenario, taking a unit out, putting it in an igloo and going to the floor to take temp when a patient was not being transfused.

Thanks

We do it in a non-transfusion scenario and use cold saline bags to mimic the blood product (so that a validation failure does not result in loss of the blood product). We open and close the cooler to take the temperature hourly for 8 hours.

We do it in a non-transfusion setting, using AB pos packed cells just in case there is a problem. We don't feel bad wasting AB cells since they are rarely transfused anyway.

We use our coolers for delivery outside of the hospital. Therefore, we validate them twice a year (hot summer and cold winter) and use "real life" situations. Example: Pack up an expired unit of donor red cells as we normally would in the cooler and go put the cooler outside on a very cold day and quickly open it and check and record the temperature every half-hour for 8 hours (or however long you want to use the cooler.) (I validated a new platelet cooler like this on a Saturday this winter by putting the cooler outside my back door......What we have to do for our jobs!)

We use expired units to do our validation.

L106---Could you please share your results?? How do you wrap platelet?

You gave me an idea on how to complete my validation under extreme condition...

We wrap the expired plateletpheresis in an absorbent pad (like a diaper with pastic on the back), then put the wrapped plateletpheresis in a plastic bag before putting it in the cooler.