How do we … integrate pathogen reduced platelets into our hospital blood bank inventory?

Abstract

ABBREVIATIONS: ARDS = acute respiratory distress syndrome; BLA = biologics license application; EMR = electronic medical record; IT = information technology; PR = pathogen reduction; SDP(s) = single-donor platelet(s); TA-GVHD = transfusionassociated graft-versus-host disease.

Phased implementation of pathogen‐reduced platelets in a health system facilitates increased manufacturing at the blood center

“…Our approach delineates specific populations for PR PLTs who are at risk of clinically significant septic transfusion reactions and who can be easily identified based on their location. Although concerns have been raised that providing PR PLTs for certain populations may be overly complex or lead to delays, we did not experience any such difficulties.…”

“…Other institutions have adopted different implementation strategies, including converting directly to 100% PR PLTs (National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, personal experience) or employing secondary testing (culture or point‐of‐issue testing) on conventional PLTs during the conversion . At UCSD, our blood supplier could not convert directly from 0% to 100%.…”

“…Nevertheless, they provide numerous benefits to patients. Although they are more expensive, we agree with others that patient safety supercedes cost. Avoiding implementation because PR PLTs are too expensive or cannot be provided to all patients raises ethical concerns.…”

The long and winding road to pathogen reduction of platelets, red blood cells and whole blood

“…A number of reports describe local and national programmes developed during the voluntary or mandatory implementation of platelet PRT in different geographical regions (Osselaer et al , ; Jimenez‐Marco et al , , ; Jutzi et al , ; Garraud & Lozano, ; Rutter & Snyder, ) and the outcomes of regular haemovigilance programmes developed after routine PRT use (Knutson et al , ; Łętowska et al , ; Piotrowski et al , ).…”

“…However, the possible need to modify locally established platelet production procedures must be taken into account to ensure that platelets undergoing PRT treatment comply with specific ‘guard bands’ for platelet type, count, volume and storage defined by the manufacturers of the PRT approved by the regulatory competent authority. Specific experience and organizational considerations related to the maintenance of a dual platelet inventory that may be necessary during the early phases of PRT adoption have been reported (Rutter & Snyder, ).…”