Apheresis broadens impact of blood donations

  • Published
  • By Steve Pivnick
  • 81st Medical Group Public Affairs
KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. (AFNS) --  Rose Weatherly plays a major role in providing life-saving blood products to patients at Keesler Medical Center and, literally, around the world.

Ms. Weatherly, a registered nurse, is the apheresis supervisor with the 81st Diagnostics and Therapeutics Squadron's pathology and clinical laboratory services flight transfusion services.  She has been with the department conducting apheresis since 1991.

She explained apheresis is the process of separating blood into its major components -- red cells, white cells and platelets -- from the plasma, or liquid portion of blood.

"This is done by an automated process," she said. "Our goal and focus for 2009 is to use apheresis to collect plasma from AB donors. AB plasma is universal and can be given to anyone. AB components lack the antibodies that could attack red cells. We're in the process of validating our process with the goal of receiving aFDA (Food and Drug Administration) license to ship plasma across state lines."

Blood products retrieved through apheresis can be used at Keesler Medical Center or sent through the Armed Services Blood Program to medical facilities worldwide. The AB plasma is shared with the Keesler Blood Donor Center to help it meet monthly goals.

A major benefit of using apheresis to collect blood components versus whole-blood donations is the mechanical method provides larger amounts of specific components, for example, up to 600 milliliters of plasma from a single donor. This compares to only 200 ml of plasma from a whole-blood donor.

Ms. Weatherly observed that one apheresis donor can furnish as many blood platelets as six whole-blood donors. These products are wonderful for patients because their exposure to products from multiple donors is limited. In addition, since most of the blood (red cells) is returned to the donors, they are able to donate more frequently, every four weeks compared to eight weeks for blood donors.

The process normally takes one to 1½ hours though first-time donors will require extra time to complete paperwork and receive an explanation about the procedure.

"Our donors must meet the same requirements as whole-blood donors," Ms. Weatherly continued. "Anyone deferred from donating whole blood cannot donate through apheresis."

While she is the only one specifically assigned to the department, Ms. Weatherly said she can rely on support from the transfusion services and Keesler Donor Center staffs as needed.

In addition to apheresis, Ms. Weatherly also performs therapeutic phlebotomies under the direction of the blood services medical director. For instance, therapeutic phlebotomy may be called upon to remove a unit of blood from a patient who has too much iron in his or her body. This is similar to a whole blood unit donation.

Ms. Weatherly said, in addition to drawing components, apheresis is used for therapeutic purposes as well. The process selectively removes a cellular (red cells, white cells) or liquid component (plasma) from the patient's blood. Depending on the diagnosis, if it's determined a plasma component is causing a patient medical complications, apheresis may be used to remove the plasma and replace it with other fluids, such as albumin or fresh frozen plasma. A red-cell exchange procedure normally performed for sickle cell crisis, replaces the patient's red cells with healthy donor red cells.