Plasmapheresis as a Form of Blood Donation

Abstract

Plasmapheresis has become a routine form of blood donation and is now an important source of plasma procurement. Procedures and equipment for plasmapheresis may differ but the basic act of bleeding the donor and safely returning the packed red cells remains the same. Care must be taken to avoid exposure of the donor to the risks of blood transfusion and to the iron depletion hazard of blood withdrawal. The donor should meet standard donor requirements, have a normal serum protein level and be able to maintain good nutrition. Plasma withdrawals of 1,000 ml. weekly are feasible but serum protein levels must be determined often enough to detect depletion. A careful system of blood and donor identification must be used and it is well to avoid handling potentially incompatible bloods simultaneously. The packed red cells should be returned to the donor within the shortest possible time after donation to avoid the risks of blood storage especially misidentifica‐tion, bacterial proliferation, and shortened survival of the red cells.

China’s Blood-Borne HIV Catastrophe Revisited

“…In the postwar era, the benefits of this breakthrough were extended to civilians. Several research teams refined Cohn’s fractionation method and made possible large-scale plasmapheresis—a technique that withdraws whole blood but immediately retransfuses packed red cells and other substances into the donor after the centrifuge has removed the plasma (e.g., Smolens, Stokes, and Vogt, 1957; Pyle, Tullis, and Pennell, 1959; Kliman and Lesses, 1964). With the boom in the biopharmaceutical industry, plasmapheresis became routine and the World Health Organization (1978, 1981) published manuals to standardize operations.…”

“…2 The latter is called “apheresis,” from the Greek “taking away.” What makes plasmapheresis distinct from whole-blood collection is its invasive reinjection process: the centrifuge fractionates collected whole blood into plasma and other substances, and the plasma is retained for processing whereas the leftovers are reintroduced into the donor. Designed for “repeated donations by selected donors” (Kliman and Lesses, 1964: 470), plasmapheresis only takes plasma from veins and thus causes less harm to donors. This technique is favored by pharmaceutical companies because plasma sourced in this manner is cheaper and purer and can be manufactured into high-value bioengineered products.…”

Early Developments in Blood Cell Separation Technology

“…In retrospect, I believe that Dr. Cohn's pioneering concepts stimulated highly creative work by several scientists and engineers outside of his group. For example, Dr. Allan Kliman [8] pressed forward with the satellite pouch technique of plasma apheresis just a little after Stokes started reporting on his program of apheresis using the ADL Cohn blood fractionator. Dr. Kliman demonstrated the safety of weekly collections of a liter of plasma per donor and this became a very widely used technique.…”

The Suppression of Rh Immunization by Passively Administered Human Immunoglobulin (IgG) Anti-D (Anti-Rh ∘)

“…Adequate supplies of IgG anti-D (anti-Rho) may be readily obtained by plasmapheresis (Janeway et al, 1963;Kliman & Lesses, 1964). It should be pointed out, however, that, although healthy subjects have had 500 2.…”