Adverse events associated with apheresis procedures: incidence and relative frequency

Abstract

Background: Apheresis procedures [plateletpheresis, plasmapheresis, peripheral blood stem cell collection] are usually well tolerated. Occasionally Adverse Events (AEs) of variable severity may occur during or after the procedure. AEs that occur in Donor/ Patients are divided into local reactions and systemic reactions. Objective: To study adverse events associated with apheresis procedures. Methods: A total of 768 plateletpheresis were performed on Haemonetics MCS + cell separator in one of the major blood banks whose annual blood collection was between 8000 and 10000 units. Results: 21 AEs were reported. Out of which the rate of vascular injury (VI) citrate reaction (CR) and presyncopal/syncopal (PS/S) in plateletpheresis were 1.56% (12/768), 0.91 % (7/768) and 0.26 % (2/786) respectively. Conclusion: Apheresis procedures performed on cell -separators are safe with low incidence of significant AE Apheresis procedures are usually well tolerated. However adverse events (AE) of variable severity may occur during or after the procedure. AEs that occur can be divided into local reactions and systemic.

Keywords

• adverse events
• citrate reaction
• vascular injury