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The European Bank of Frozen Blood of the Council of Europe
Introduction One of the challenges in transfusion medicine is to provide compatible blood for patients which are negative for blood group antigens with a very high frequency in the population (so called public antigens), as well as positive for alloantibodies against any of those antigens. A second category of patients for whom compatible blood may be difficult to find are those with a combination of alloantibodies, so that donors negative for all the antigens involved are very rare. If autologous blood is not available or not sufficient to cover the needs of the aforementioned patients, it may be necessary to use frozen red cell concentrates from the European Bank of Frozen Blood. Red Cell Freezing Stock of blood units Conditions for sending blood units to the European Bank of Frozen Blood How to request blood units from the European Bank of Frozen Blood Actual stock of frozen units Red Cell Freezing For cryopreservation the low-glycerol method is used and the frozen red cells are stored at –196°C in liquid nitrogen. Glycerol protects red cells from damage during freezing and thawing. The preservation time at that temperature is virtually indefinite. After thawing the units must be transfused within 24 hours due to the risk of bacterial contamination. Top Stock of blood units The stock of the bank is constituted of units provided by transfusion centers of the member countries and, on occasion, from other countries. Requests for transfusion with rare blood will always remain. Therefore, receiving and freezing rare bloodunits is imperative to be able to meet all requests. Top Conditions for sending blood units to the European Bank of Frozen Blood Preferably packed red blood cells resuspended in SAG-M after removal of the buffycoat should be sent. An extra blood sample, preferably 2-3 ml of serum or plasma is required for donor screening. The name (the unique donorID) and date of birth of the donor should be supplied for the registration. It is also very much appreciated when screening results of blood transfusion transmissable infectious diseases, and details about e.g. test-method, kit Lot. number and cut-off are provided. Preferably we would like to receive as much information as possible concerning any results of RBC antigen typing and any other relevant information. When you send units to the European Bank of Frozen Blood, please notify if possible one (working) day or more in advance, either by telephone or fax. The information needed includes the flightnumber, the time of arrival and the airwaybillnumber. Top How to request blood units from the European Bank of Frozen Blood Units should preferably be ordered by telephone and must be confirmed by fax. Blood can be ordered at any time. From Monday to Friday 08.30-17.00 hours, please call +31 20 512 3373 and/or use fax +31 20 512 3685. Outside working hours call +31 20 512 3333 and ask for the technician on call. Thawing and reconstitution of frozen blood takes about 3-4 hours. If more than four units are required the processing will be about two hours longer. In almost all cases shipping of the units will be by plane. The time of transportation and the time for customs regulations need to be taken into consideration. Top Actual stock of frozen units, Council of Europe Bloodbank
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Last Modified: 11 April 2010 11:49