SINGLE-DONOR PLATELETS - CAN WE AFFORD TO USE THEM - CAN WE AFFORD NOT TO USE THEM

One of the strategies to reduce the risk of harming a patient by trans fusion therapy is to limit the overall risk of transfusion-transmitted disease. Central to this approach is minimizing the number of allogen eic blood products with which a patient is transfused. The usual dose of platelets for an adult patient is either six to 10 random donor pla telets vs. one unit of platelets, pheresis (so-called single donor aph eresis platelets). Consequently, the transfusion services at the Unive rsity of Southern California Health Sciences Campus (USC University Ho spital, the Norris Cancer Hospital, and Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center) routinely use single donor apheresis platelets (SDPs) rather than random donor platelets (RDPs) in an effort to minimize allogeneic platelet transfusions, and thereby reduce risk of transfusion-transmi tted infection. Although there are other compelling medical, technical , and medical-legal reasons to use SDPs instead of RDPs, the authors b elieve that a decrease in allogeneic donor exposures alone is sufficie nt reason to make SDPs the platelet component of choice at their insti tutions. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.