Hi, I would like to start the cryo pooling in our centre. Does any blood centre have experience in prepooled cryo ? May i have more information about the pooling procedure and what kind of pooling set are used? Any links are welcomed ! Thank you ~

http://www.pall.com/medical_52920.asp

We get Frozen pools of 5 units from Community Blood Center of Florida

they expire 6 hours after thawing as opposed to 4 hours after pooling in an open system.

We prepare our own cryo and store them as single units. When requested, we thaw and then pool the cryo by connecting with the sterile connecting device. And yes, they expire 6 hours after thawing because it is a closed sysytem.

Both Florida Blood Services and Florida Blood Centers pre pool cryo for their customers. FBS does 5packs and FBC does it in 10 packs

I left the blood center a couple of years ago but was there when we implemented the pooling process. You can get the pool bags from Charter Med that have 5 or 6 or 10 leads to sterile connect on the single cryo units. We pooled in groups of 5. We made the first stage and waited till testing was complete and actually labeled the units so that we could pool the same ABO units together. It would have been a pain if one of the units tested positive after it had gone into a pool. A very expensive lost pool.

We thawed the units in a cold water bath and spun the units down like we were making single cryo. We left slightly more plasma on the units (20-25cc) so that we did not have to add saline and track that additional information. Then we sterile connected the 5 units and massage the cryo into suspension. Hung the units to drain into the pool bag and put them on dry ice to freeze quickly. We had a 1 hour limit from the time we took out units out of the water bath until we put the units on the dry ice. It was tough but we processed in batches of 12 so we usually had 2 pools and 2 singles but had a couple extra if one of the bags broke in the water bath.

Hospitals love these and now that I am on the hospital side we do not order anything else.

Thank you for the information. I would like to do the pre-storage pooled cryo in closed system. According to AABB, prepooled cryo can be stored <-30C for 12 months in closed system. Anyone has this experience (colleen, after you refrozen the pooled cryo, what is the expiry date of the pooled product)? Thanks ~

The expiration for the frozen pool is 1 year from the earliest collection date for the individual units in the pool. IF one unit is collected 8/10/11 and the other 4 units are collected 8/12/11 the expiration on the frozen pool is 8/10/12. Once the cryo is thawed it is good for 6 hours with a closed (sterile connection) system. We applied for licensure without the sterile connection and FDA would not approve it unless we used the sterile connecting device.

We manufacture pre-storage pooled cryoprecipitate. In my eyes, pooling harnesses are a waste of time and money. We pool 5 units, and the bag that we use for final storage is one of the containers that was used to manufacture one of the "single" units of cryoprecipitate.

Tthank you so much for all ~ it's time to start .....