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Published on: January 31, 2018
Platelet utilization in the developing world: strategies to optimize platelet transfusion practices
Anupam Verma1, Prashant Agarwal
1Transfusion Medicine, Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow 226014, India. aver@sgpgi.ac.in
Insights
Developing countries face critical blood shortages, particularly for platelets, due to underdeveloped transfusion services. Implementing best practices is crucial for optimizing the use of these scarce and expensive blood components.
Area of Science:
- Transfusion Medicine
- Hematology
- Public Health
Background:
- Significant shortages of blood and blood components, especially platelets, persist globally, particularly in developing nations.
- Underdeveloped healthcare systems and blood transfusion services exacerbate the demand-supply gap for essential blood products.
- Limited comprehensive data on platelet utilization in developing countries hinders the advancement of blood component therapy.
Purpose of the Study:
- To highlight the challenges and variations in platelet transfusion practices in developing countries.
- To emphasize the need for standardized and optimal utilization of scarce platelet resources.
- To propose interventions for improving platelet utilization in resource-limited settings.
Main Methods:
- Review of existing literature and data on platelet transfusion practices in developing countries.
- Analysis of factors contributing to heterogeneity in transfusion protocols.
- Identification of key areas for intervention and best practice implementation.
Main Results:
- Considerable heterogeneity exists in platelet transfusion practices within and between developing countries.
- Factors such as individual preferences, lack of standardized policies, and availability issues contribute to practice variations.
- Developed nations are advancing towards platelet substitutes, contrasting with the challenges in developing regions.
Conclusions:
- There is an urgent need to implement evidence-based best practices for platelet transfusion in developing countries.
- Standardization of transfusion policies and addressing availability issues are critical for optimizing platelet use.
- Improving platelet utilization is essential given their scarcity and high cost in resource-limited settings.
Abstract:
There is perennial shortage of blood and blood components in most of the developing world. The resources are inadequate in terms of meeting the ever growing demand of blood components especially platelets. A poor health care system has led to underdevelopment of blood transfusion services which ultimately affect the transfusion practices. There is a paucity of comprehensive data on the platelet usage from the developing countries which is reflective of their modest development in blood component therapy. This is in sharp contrast to the fast pace of development in platelet transfusion practice in developed world where platelet substitutes are to become a reality for clinical use in near future. In developing world a considerable heterogeneity exists for platelet transfusion practices between countries, and even within countries in hospitals where this precious resource is available. This variation in existing practices can partly be explained by factors like individual preferences, lack of any hospital transfusion policy with regard to platelet transfusion, problems of platelet availability, etc. There is a need to implement best platelet transfusion practices as platelet products are scarcely available and expensive. Few interventions are emphasized in this article in the context of improving the status of platelet utilization in developing countries.
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