Desiccation of residual red blood cells from plasma production

Abstract

I N a state-wide civilian bIood pIasma program such as that which is in operation in North Dakota,’ Iarge quantities of residua1 red bIood ceIIs are discarded as waste materia1. However, during the past six months these bIood ceIIs have been desiccated and distributed to physicians for use as a dressing materia1 for various types of wound heaIing. The purpose of this paper is to present the technica procedure used in our Iaboratories for the production of dried human red ceIIs. Moorhead and Unge? presented a use for residua1 bIood ceIIs resuIting from the mass production of pIasma. They used red bIood ceJIs in the form of a geIatinous mass as a dressing materia1 for wounds such as open uIcers, infections, etcetera. SeIdon and Young3 used the foregoing method at the Mayo CIinic but encountered difficuIty in keeping the semi-Iiquid materia1 in contact with the wound. They observed that it was either absorbed by the dry gauze dressings or ran out of the wound. Because of this experience, they decided to dry the geJatinous mass and use it as a dusting powder. Dr. A. E. Osterberg, using the Harper and Osterberg4 method for drying bIood pIasma, reduced the semi-Iiquid mass of red bIood ceIIs to a fine powder. SeJdon and Young3 report that the powder worked satisfactoriIy in many instances and they cite case reports to bear this out. They recommend that the powder be dusted on the wound or appIied with a steriIe spatuJa, then covered with a dry, steriIe dressing. One or two appIications are used daiIy. The types of cases which they have treated with dried red ceJJ powder have incIuded infected wounds, postoperative abdomina1 wounds which had not heaIed above the fasciaI Iayer, certain proctoIogic cases, varicose and other uJcers of the Ieg, amputation stumps, open chest wounds, and so forth. They report that resuIts have not been uniformIy beneficia1 but were suff’cientJy promising to warrant more investigative work aIong this Iine. After the report of Seidon and Young3 was read and after severa requests for red ceJ1 powder were received from IocaI physicians, it was decided to work out a procedure for the drying of the residua1 bIood ceIJs for free distribution to the medica men in North Dakota. The process of desiccation is essentiaIIy the same as that used in the preparation of dried bIood pJasma. The method and apparatus used in the drying of the red ceIJs is that devised by Strumia and McGraw5 for the dehydration of pJasma. This method and apparatus is being used in the preparation of bIood pJasma for state-wide distribution. The apparatus? does both she11 freezing and drying of materia1, is easy to operate, and is economicaJ to run.