COMPARISON BETWEEN CENTRIFUGATION, COARSE FILTRATION AND MICROFILTRATION TECHNIQUES TO PREPARE AUTOLOGOUS BLOOD TRANSFUSION

Abstract

In case of a bleeding patient, centrifugal cell salvage washing technique for autologous blood preparation is a preferred medical treatment in order to retain lost RBCs without contaminants. Although highly efficient in collection and washing shed blood, centrifugal cell salvage technology is costly and often unpractical or unavailable, especially in middle or low income countries, creating a need for more cost-effective and practical technologies. This study assessed two innovative filter devices as an alternative for the centrifugal cell salvage technology; a coarse collection filter device (Hemafuse) and a microfiltration device (HemoClear). Both devices were recently introduced in the Kenyan and European markets, respectively. Their accessible design could make these devices valuable additions to the current cell salvage technologies. We compared the effectiveness of these filtration technologies to remove plasma constituents and recover and concentrate the cellular components with a centrifugal device (autoLog®). Diluted whole blood was processed with each technology according to their manufacturer's instructions. The centrifugal technology confirmed its efficacy to remove potentially harmful solutes and capture red blood cells. The microfiltration technology (HemoClear) reached comparable levels of removal of solutes as the centrifugal technology, with a potential advantage over centrifugal technology in the ability to also recover platelets. The coarse filtration technology (Hemafuse) had no washing capacity but like the microfiltration technology, has the advantage of recovering platelets.