Karnataka: KMC hospital blood bank starts platelet-apheresis service

Mangaluru: In a first-of-its-kind service in South-Kannada region, KMC hospital’s blood bank has started platelet-aphresis-service, which aids in storing the component of blood which initiates and propagates blood clotting. This is the second effort taken in Coastal Karnataka region.

The service aiding availability of this component of blood for patients who require immediate ingestion is successful for treatment of dengue and diseases where platelet counts are low within the patients body.

Elaborating the process of the service, Dr Anand Venugopal stated that the process which takes more than one hour includes the collection of platelets on 'Haemonetics MCS+' instrument. The time taken for aphresis depends on the donor's platelet count and expected yield of platelet count in the Single Donor Platelet (SDP) unit, reported TOI.

Shrijeet Chakraborti, director of the blood bank, said that the procedure is very helpful to collect platelets for treating patients with moderate to severely low platelet counts. Any healthy person between the age of 18 - 60 years, body weight above 55 kgs and platelet count 1.5 lakhs/cu.mm can undergo this procedure. The same donor can again donate after 72 hours, but not more than 24 times in a year. The only complication during the platelet-apheresis procedure is mild reduction in blood calcium level which can be corrected by chewable calcium tablets. There is no complication of low blood pressure or reduction in blood volume as encountered in usual blood donation.

Dr. Venugopal added, “One unit of SDP or apheresis platelets collected after platelet-apheresis procedure is equivalent to 6 - 8 units of Random Donor Platelet (RDP), which was collected after component separation from whole blood of identical number of donors. Since the amount of plasma in SDP is more than RDP, so only group specific SDP can be issued to the patient.”

"We are happy and proud to announce this service for the citizens of Dakshin Kannada. This is extremely helpful for patients who have low platelet count and require repeated platelet transfusions. Cancer patients, organ or bone marrow transplants patients, victims of traumatic injuries patients of Dengue with low platelet count and those who are undergoing open heart surgery need platelet transfusions to survive," he said.