Apheresis/Platelet Donation

What are Platelets?
Platelets, which are produced in the bone marrow of healthy people, are essential to the blood clotting function. Unlike red blood cells, whose shelf life is 42 days, platelets have a shelf life of only five days. The supply must constantly be replenished.

Patients undergoing procedures such as chemotherapy, a bone marrow transplant or open-heart surgery depend on these lifesaving platelets in order to survive their treatments.

Who Needs Platelets?

• Cancer patients (especially those with leukemia) who require chemotherapy, which often renders the body unable to produce platelets
• Surgical patients who require platelets, helping the blood clot and preventing severe bleeding
• Bone marrow transplant patients who are unable to produce platelets
• Patients with blood disorders such as aplastic anemia

Platelet Facts:

• Platelets are part of the normal clotting process
• The body continuously regenerates platelets
• Healthy people have a surplus of platelets
• Donated platelets must be used with five days
• A person can donate platelets up to 24 times a year

How are Platelets Collected?
In 1972, apheresis, a process of donating a single component of blood, such as platelets, became an established part of the Red Cross blood program. Before apheresis the only way to collect enough platelets for a single transfusion was to take whole blood donations from five to ten donors, separate platelets from the other blood components and combine the platelets to obtain a large enough quantity for transfusion.

Today, sophisticated medical equipment, blood cell separators, can collect enough platelets for transfusion from a single donor. During apheresis, blood is drawn from the donor into an instrument that separates blood into different components, in this case, platelets. The remaining blood is then returned to the donor. From start to finish, the entire process takes about two hours.

What are the Benefits of Apheresis?
The percentage of platelets collected through apheresis is much greater than from a whole blood donation—about six to ten times greater. So patients are exposed to fewer donors, which decreases the chance of a transfusion reaction. This means patients could experience fewer complications, allowing them to focus on recovery.

Who Can Be an Apheresis Donor?
Any person in good health who:

• Is age 17 or older (16 in Kansas, Illinois and Missouri with a signed Red Cross Parental Consent Form)
• Weighs at least 110 pounds
• Has been aspirin-free for 48 hours
• Can devote approximately two hours for a donation

To schedule an appointment or for more information, please call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE (1-800-448-3543)

Trima
To meet the ever-increasing need for blood and blood products, the American Red Cross Missouri-Illinois Blood Services Region has introduced a more efficient way to donate: automated blood collections via Trima®.

Trima allows the Red Cross to collect the specific blood components needed based on the fluctuation of the blood supply, meeting patient demand more effectively. Additionally, donors can safely give more blood components as compared with traditional whole blood donation, which means you can possibly help more people and donate less frequently.

How Does It Work?
By working closely with the community hospitals, automated blood collection technologies allow the Red Cross to tailor its blood collection efforts to better meet patient needs.

Automated blood donations are efficient because each donor can give full transfusable units of the components most needed by patients. For instance, we can collect full units of all three components—red blood cells, platelets and plasma—or larger volumes of certain components.

During donation, blood is drawn from one arm and channeled through a sterile, single-use tubing set to an automated system. The automated system separates and collects the most needed components and then safely returns the remaining blood components back to you. The process is safe and efficient.

What are the Benefits?
Efficiency: This type of automated collection is a highly-efficient collection process because one donor, in one donation session, can give full transfusable units of the components most needed by patients. In contrast to traditional collection methods, the Red Cross can collect full units of all three components (red blood cells, platelets and plasma) or even larger volumes of certain components. So you can possibly give more products at one time, helping more patients and donating less frequently.

Flexibility:  The Trima collection process is flexible, ensuring optimal collections by allowing the Red Cross to collect the blood products needed most on that specific day, based on patient need.

Safety:  Patients benefit most because they are receiving your lifesaving blood and blood products. Plus automated donations ensure that the blood components patients need come from fewer donors, decreasing the likelihood of transfusion reactions that can occur from multiple donor products.

How Often Can You Give?
The criteria for donating blood and platelets via Trima are the same as those that must be met for traditional methods of collection:

• You must be 17 years old (16 in Kansas, Illinois and Missouri with a signed Red Cross Parental Consent Form).
• You must not have donated whole blood in the last 56 days.
• You must not have donated platelets in the last three days.
• You must have been aspirin-free for the last 48 hours (platelets only).

Additionally, there are certain requirements that must be met to donate multiple products via the Trima collection process:

• To give double red cells, you must meet certain weight and height restrictions and you may need to have a slightly higher hematocrit level. If double red cells are collected, your next eligible donation date for any product would be in 112 days.
• To give double platelets, you must have a higher platelet count than what is required for regular platelet donation via apheresis.

The Trima process is programmed to determine the number of components you are eligible to give based on your individual make-up. For more information, please call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE.

The Red Cross is highly committed to biomedical research and the development of innovative technologies that will enhance many lives in the future.