Apheresis Immunohematology Review 422
Explanation
Advantages
Donor requirements
Components collected
Therapeutic uses
Automated blood collection system that allows removal of 1 or more components from blood & return of
remainder to donor.
Allows collection of larger volume of specific components. Can reduce # of donors to which pt is exposed.
Vary with procedure.
RBCs (2 units can be collected at same time from donors who are larger & have higher HCT. 16 wk
between donations).
Platelets. (Plateletpheresis. Can collect HLA matched for pts who are refractory to random plts. Can be
leukoreduced during collection. Contain ≥3 x 10^11 plt.)
Plasma (Plasmapheresis).
Granulocytes. (Leukapheresis. Not widely used to date.)
Stem cells. (For bone marrow reconstitution in pt with cancer, leukemia, lymphoma. Autologous or
HLA matched.)
Therapeutic plasmapheresis (plasma exchange) used to remove abnormal plasma proteins & replace
with crystalloid, albumin, or FFP. Therapeutic cytapheresis used to remove cellular elements, e.g., ab-
normal # platetets (to ↓risk of hemorrhage or thrombosis), leukemic WBCs, lymphocytes (to induce
immunosuppression).
