Does anyone have a policy to issue RhIg or WinRho to Rh negative patients receiving Rh Positive blood? AABB has a standard 5.20 " The transfusion service shall have a policy for Rh Immune Glogulin prophylaxis for Rh-negative patients who have been exposed to Rh-positive red cells."

Does anyone have a policy to issue RhIg or WinRho to Rh negative patients receiving Rh Positive blood? AABB has a standard 5.20 " The transfusion service shall have a policy for Rh Immune Glogulin prophylaxis for Rh-negative patients who have been exposed to Rh-positive red cells."

Not sure this answer is correct but.........

It is probably best left to the Transfusion Service (by that I mean the Pathologist in Charge of your Blood Supplier), rather than a "local" Pathologist, because the chances are that the former will have come across this scenario before (or know someone else that has) and know what to do, whereas the latter would probably not have come across this before (or know someone who has) and would be "flying by the seat of his/her pants".

In other words, it is a case of experience (rather than knowledge); or maybe both.

:fear::fear:

A guideline in our SOP states that 13 to 15 vials of Rhogam should be sufficient to prevent alloimmunization

after transfusion of one packed red blood cell.

I have never seen the massive administration of RhIg prevent sensitization when an Rh+ unit is given to an Rh= pt. It works for rbc contaminated plts, usually.

Edited February 17, 201114 yr by David Saikin
spelling

We used to have a policy to inject RhIg if someone received Rh positive blood. My pathologist decided to back off on it because of the risks associated with that volume of RhIg injection and the resultant positive DAT. So now our policy is not to recommend RhIg with Rh positive transfusions.

The standard states you need a policy, it does not say you must give it.

That's right, just need a policy in place. I called AABB Accreditation which suggested a policy must be in place to state how you would handle Rh Pos patients who get Rh Neg blood.

As an example AABB said to give RhIg only to females of childbearing age. So just state what you would do.

Sometimes these Standards are like deciphering poetry.