Leukoreduced blood components: Advantages and strategies for its implementation in developing countries

R R Sharma1, Neelam Marwaha

  • 1Department of Transfusion Medicine, PGIMER, Chandigarh, India.

Removal of leucocytes from various blood products has been shown to minimize Febrile nonhemolytic transfusion reactions, HLA alloimmunization, platelet refractoriness in multitransfused patients and prevention of transmission of leukotropic viruses such as EBV and CMV. Rapidly growing size of hemato-oncological patients in our country requiring multiple transfusion of blood and components during the course of their management pose a great challenge to transfusion services to provide them red cell and platelet antigen matched products in alloimmunized subjects. Thus removal of leucocytes below a certain threshold,