Rapid thawing of fresh frozen plasma in two-liter bags

The authors hypothesized that plasma could be rapidly thawed in two-liter Transfer Pack Units, because of their greater surface area (993 cm2) compared to standard satellite bags (348 cm2) of Blood Pack Units (both from Fenwal, Baxter Healthcare Corp, Deerfield, IL). Five units of FFP were prepared in each bag. The Sterile Connection Device (DuPont, Wilmington, DE) was used to transfer plasma from the satellite to transfer pack units, and these were put in metal canisters before all units were frozen at -65 degrees C. Thawing time was 4.8 +/- 1.3 (SD) minutes and 15 +/- 3.2 (SD) min. for units prepared in modified and standard methods respectively (t = 6.33, P less than .01). The thermal rate constants were calculated as 0.0034 and 0.0033 for the two methods. The finding of similar values substantiate the theory that thawing time is related to the volume to surface area ratio.