Plateletapheresis in a low-resource center in Nigeria

Abstract

Introduction: Apheresis is widely established in developed centers but only very few centers in Nigeria have this facility. The commencement of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) in our facility in 2011 necessitated the development of an apheresis center with its enormous benefits for both HSCT patients and other patients in the hospital. Materials and Methods: A retrospective study at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital on donor plateletapheresis over a 4-year period (January 2011 to December 31, 2014). Apheresis machine used for the plateletapheresis is Haemonetics MCS+ and donors were selected using the European Guidelines for apheresis selection. Result: A total of 150 plateletapheresis were performed for 50 patients with an average of 34.75 per annum. Donors were mainly males (84.9%) and the general indication was thrombocytopenia secondary to some medical condition. The main medical indication was thrombocytopenia for patients undergoing HSCT (38.2%). Others were hematological malignancies/chemotherapy-related thrombocytopenia (33.3%) and bone marrow aplasia (7.2%). Sixty-five (46.8%) of donors were of blood group O, 48.2% were of blood group A, 2.2% were of blood group B, and 2.9% were of blood group AB. The majority of the donors (98.6%) were Rhesus-positive. The average number of cycles was 6.4 ± 0.2, average yield was 3.6 ± 0.1 × 10 11 cells, blood volume was 3,135.2 ± 61.0 mL, acid-citrate-dextrose (ACD) was 409.4 ± 25.4 mL, and platelet volume was 243.9 ± 6.1 mL. Conclusion: Plateletapheresis is a new procedure in most developing centers. We have reported the activities in a single center with enormous benefits to patients with thrombocytopenia. There is a need to improve and subsidize these services to make it readily available to patients who require single platelet concentrate.