[Lbrown]

Hi guys,

At my last transfusion, my nurse told me that red cells are all pooled. I asked if they were pooled, then why was each unit a different size. She said something about the amount of plasma, but that just doesn't make sense (if they are pooled). Also, they are often different colours too. I would assume they would extract as much plasma as possible to make IVIG, and a nurse friend of mine doesn't know how they'd ever do cross types & matches if the blood was pooled.

I keep track of the volume of red cells I get for my own info. I thought each unit of red cells was from 1 person. I also thought 200 ml of red cells = 10 points of HGB, but when I googled it recently, it seems more like 300 ml of red cells = 10 points of HGB.

Does anyone have any comments? I am pretty sure red cells can't possibly be pooled, but I might be wrong.

Thanks,
Deb