At a recent trauma department meeting, one of the trauma surgeons mentioned something about "rapid plasma thawers being available".  We currently use a Helmer 8 place thawer that will thaw an average FFP unit in 14-18 minutes.  Are there thawers that will thaw a unit of FFP in 5 minutes or less?  Interested to have you share any information.

There are microwave plasma thawers.  They are used quite a bit in Florida.  I inspected a hospital that had recently purchased one and they were very happy with it.  I have ordered one and should be receiving it in the next 2-4 weeks.  They are FDA approved and have save guards to prevent "hot spots".  The plasma is rotated during the thawing.  It allows smaller hospitals to provide plasma for ED patients quickly.  We are currently wasting A FFP in an attempt to keep a thawed inventory available for most ED patients.

We also use a microwave which thaws a couple of units in about 7-8 minutes (not including the relabeling etc).  Have you considered 5 day thawed plasma if your facility uses this product on a regular basis?  This would allow you to have product readily available.

 

If you are big enough to have trauma surgeons, I suspect you are not a small hospital.  For larger facilities another alternative is to have thawed plasma always available.  If not used in 24 hours, you can give it to regular patients.

We do convert our FFP to thawed plasma but still experience waste.  We are in a rural area and generally are stabilizing trauma patients to ship to a larger facility.  We attempt to use the plasma for other patients but often we do not have the need.  We usually end up wasting a little less than half of the units thawed.  I was hesitant at first to purchase a microwave thawer however after seeing one I believe it will be a good solution for our hospital.

We had a microwave many years ago, maybe 20?  It was always an adventure.  I suspect the device was inferior to what is available today and the plastics have likely improved too.  We would get broken products regularly (several times a week) and it was disgusting.  It smelled awful, looked like scrambled eggs when you opened the door and was really messy to clean up.