The impact of educating blood donors on plasmapheresis and plasma applications on the availability of plasma-derived medicinal products

Abstract

Introduction: Human plasma contains valuable proteins such as albumin, globulins and coagulation factors. These ingredients are used to obtain medicinal products (PDMPs - plasma-derived medicinal products) used in many fields of medicine. The growing number of indications for their use causes an increase in the demand for plasma collected from blood donors. Most donors, however, choose to donate whole blood, which provides a lower amount of plasma than plasmapheresis.

Purpose of the study: This study aims to indicate the reasons why donors do not decide to donate plasma by apheresis, to show the role of informing donors about the plasmapheresis, about the uses of plasma collected and about the safety of the process. The work also presents examples of PDMPs applications that can be used in the process of educating donors, which may contribute to increasing the number of plasma donors and, at the same time, the availability of PDMPs.

Material and methods: A review of scientific research (using Pubmed, Google Scholar databases), medical books and materials published on websites of institutions related to blood donation regulations was conducted.

Results: The reasons why blood donors do not decide to donate plasma include, among others, longer donation time and lack of knowledge about plasmapheresis. The decision to donate plasma via plasmapheresis is influenced not only by the fact of informing the donor about such a possibility, but also by the content and manner of providing the information. Due to the greater amount of plasma obtained each time by plasmapheresis compared to the separation of whole blood, an increase in the number of donors undergoing plasmapheresis may indirectly positively affect the availability of plasma-derived medicinal products