2010 Volume 56 Issue 6 Pages 679-686
Background and Objects: Blood products such as red cell concentrates (RCC), platelet concentrates (PC), and fresh frozen plasma (FFP) are a part of the human body, and should therefore be treated carefully and effectively. Nevertheless, some blood products are wasted due to expiration. Although blood products are reused before expiration in other patients in a hospital to avoid wastage, this may be limited within one hospital. We therefore developed a method to reuse blood products effectively among hospitals.
Methods: Seven hospitals operated by Tokyo Metropolitan Government took part in this study. First, we investigated the amount of blood products which were wasted due to expiration from January to July, 2005. Daily from September to December, 2007, each hospital sent information about unused and nearly time-expired blood products to the other hospitals by an internet mailing system. If any of these blood products were needed by another hospital, they were transported to that hospital and used for transfusion. A container with a temperature stabilizer for blood product was used for transportation to maintain an appropriate temperature. To assess product acceptability, the temperature and appearance of blood, transport time, and other details, were recorded after transportation.
Results: Eighteen RCCs, one PC, and four FFPs were transported from one hospital to another and used for transfusion from September to December in 2007. The wastage rate of RCCs during this period was 1.06%, which was significantly lower than the rate of 1.78% during the other period.
Conclusion: We consider that reuse of blood products in other hospitals before expiration is an effective means of reducing the wastage of blood products, and is meaningful to implement among large groups of hospitals.
