Packed Red Blood Cells

[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

[Marlene]

I've never heard of red cells being pooled either...just platelets, and white cells. I think your nurse was mistaken.

[Lbrown]

I've also been told by 2 nurses now, that all the units have the same amount of hemoglobin in them, which I also find hard to believe. Although if they are all roughly the same size, then I guess I can see it.

I know serum is pooled, didn't know platelets were. WBCs?

Deb

[Marlene]

They used pooled platelets for John while at Hopkins because they were trying to keep his platelet at 50K. So they pooled and matched them.

Once we were back home, his doctor always ordered single donor platelet.

He also got white cells while at Hopkins. Not usually done since it's difficult for the body to handle. From what they explained, it takes about 2 -3 days to find multiple donors for this. Lots of coordination. But then, I'm not sure they were pooled. They were probably single units from each person. He was supposed to get 5 straight days of them but they had to stop after 3 days.

I too find it hard to believe the HGB amount is the same.

[Lbrown]

It must be hard to get white cells.

I can see getting multiple units of cells that come from different donors like you say.

I also read in the newspaper (so it may not be accurate) that you develop antibodies to a particular donor's blood, so a person can only donate cells to you once, but I don't know how true that is either.

I don't worry about these things, but for some reason today I am coming up with a bunch of stuff that I find a bit hard to believe. Go figure. LOL.

Deb