Platelet concentrates, from whole blood or collected by apheresis?

Platelet concentrates can be isolated from donated whole blood with the platelet-rich plasma-method or the buffy coat-method. Alternatively, platelets can be obtained by apheresis, harvesting the platelets but returning all other cells to the donor. The quality and characteristics of platelets during storage are affected by a number of factors, such as anticoagulant, centrifugation and processing after collection, and pre- or post storage pooling, but when comparing literature on the various methods, most differences balance out. To have sufficient platelets to treat an adult patient, whole-blood-derived platelet concentrates need pooling of multiple donations, thereby increasing the risk of infectious agent transmission at least two-fold as compared with apheresis units. Allo immunization rates, acute reaction rates, and transfusion related acute lung injury rates are not different. Apheresis donation procedures have fewer adverse events. All these factors need to be considered and weighed when selecting a method of platelet collection for a blood center.