Abstract
Results concerning cellular therapy from the Comprehensive Questionnaire Surveys on Transfusion Medicine for 2008 by the Japanese Society of Transfusion Medicine and Cell Therapy were collected and analyzed. Questionnaires were sent to 7,857 hospitals, of which 3,208 (40.8%) replied. Full-time nurses were posted to transfusion departments in 53 hospitals. Autologous blood stem cells, allogeneic blood stem cells, unrelated bone marrow, related bone marrow, donor lymphocytes, and granulocytes were harvested at 108, 75, 28, 26, 24 and 10 institutions, respectively. As for autologous peripheral blood stem cells, 48 hospitals conducted harvests at transfusion departments, 70 had standard operating procedures, 54 recorded working processes, 59 labeled containers for defined items, 52 identified and verified cell products according to procedures designed for blood products, 70 carried out flow-cytometric analyses at their own facilities, and 63 used dedicated clean benches for open-system processing. Pre-storage and post-storage sterility tests were conducted at only 7 and 1 facilities, respectively. In aphereses, veins were punctured by patient-care physicians in 82 hospitals, and cell-separators were operated by medical technologists and engineers in 35 and 31 hospitals, respectively. Processing, freezing, storage and issuance of the cells were assumed by medical technologists in most hospitals. This survey for 2008 revealed that medical technologists and engineers play important roles, and that process and quality control in cell processing in hospitals require improvement.
