The blood donations They are essential daily for carrying out multiple treatments and interventions, «especially for those who must receive a bone marrow transplant, liver transplant, cardiovascular surgeries or treatments for oncohematological diseases and polytrauma,» report from the Austral University Hospital.
Safe blood and blood products, as well as their transfusion, are a fundamental aspect of patient care.
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Every day they save many lives, improve health and quality of life. It’s a resource valuable and limited, since it cannot be manufactured and depends on the voluntary and altruistic donation of people. Donating blood does not imply any risk for the donor. The material used is sterile and disposable.
Donation by apheresis
This is the name given to donation through teams called “cell separators” that allow – at the same time of donation – to fractionate the different components of blood (red or white blood cells, platelets and plasma) and collect them. For these procedures, disposable and sterile material is used. It is a procedure that lasts between 90 and 120 minutes.
The blood products resulting from apheresis are intended for patients with cancer, leukemia, aplastic anemia, organ transplants and, frequently, patients receiving treatment with chemotherapy or radiotherapy.
The human body has between 150,000 and 400,000 platelets per mm3 of blood. In leukemias, cancer or transplants, the number of platelets drops below 5,000 per mm3, so patients need many platelet transfusions to recover the normal number.
Benefits for the patient:
- Being from a single donor, the risk of sensitization and adverse reactions to the patient is reduced.
- Better quality of the donated product.
- The response to transfusion improves and, consequently, the number of transfusions received and the number of days of hospitalization are reduced.
How is the proccess
It is performed using a machine that is connected in a closed circuit to the donor’s vein. The process is safe since all the material used is sterile and single-use, but it requires a little more time (about 60 to 120 minutes). In the procedure, all blood components, except those that are collected in that donation, They return to the donor.
In addition to the requirements for conventional blood donation, it is essential not to have taken ibuprofen, paracetamol, aspirin or products containing acetylsalicylic acid during the five days prior to the donation. In this specific donation, along with the usual health questionnaire, an informed consent must be signed.