Why Are Plasma Freezers So Important?

Once donated, blood is generally stored for use later on after having had the plasma component separated

. The different components of blood have varying shelf lives; while plasma is generally stored in a plasma freezer for later use, platelets are more problematic. At the moment, there are no available methods of keeping these components usable over the long term; while there are some new technologies in development, the current shelf life of platelets is about a week at the outside. Red blood cells, however can be stored in a standard blood bank refrigerator for as long as six weeks before degrading to a state where they are no longer useful.

One way to extend the period which blood can be stored is to add glycerol before freezing. However, this is an expensive proposition and also calls for the use of an extremely cold freezer for safe storage. By contrast, plasma will keep in a plasma freezer for at least one year, which makes this a product which is relatively easy to maintain adequate supplies of.

The short shelf life of other blood components makes maintaining sufficient stocks to be available for use in the event of a disaster very difficult and many centers in the US often have a hard time even keeping more than three days of supplies on hand in their blood bank refrigerator for routine needs.

The proper storage of blood and its components is an essential task for medical facilities of all sizes. Since an ordinary refrigerator or freezer is simply not up to the job, specialized refrigeration equipment is needed to safeguard these life giving supplies. A plasma freezer or refrigerator for blood products may be in nearly any size and offer a widely varying storage capacity.

This is equipment which is designed to maintain a consistent temperature which is adequate for the safe storage of these materials, featuring the ability to quickly return to the proper temperature even in facilities where the door of the blood bank refrigerator or freezer is frequently opened. These units are by necessity designed to be extremely durable and require a bare minimum of maintenance, given their vital importance to health care operations in the facilities which use them, as well as the extremely perishable nature of their contents.

Typical features seen in a plasma freezer or other cold storage equipment for blood products include recirculating air cooling, automatic defrosting and a warning system, often including electronic monitoring, switching and automatic warnings of faults or failure in the operation of the unit. Warning features such as this are a necessity in blood storage units to preserve the integrity of the products being stored.

A blood bank refrigerator will usually offer a relatively large storage capacity, though this may vary according to the needs and available space of the facility in question. The larger models of refrigerator or plasma freezer may be able to store as many as fifty bags of 450 ml in size. Safe, efficient storage of blood and plasma can literally be a matter of life or death, making these specialized refrigeration units equipment which must be chosen with care to ensure the stability of these vital medical supplies.

by: Andrew Long

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