Plasmapheresis technology

Manual plasmapheresis is done worldwide on both paid donors, and to a much smaller extent on volunteer donors in order to generate source plasma to be fractionated into albumin, clotting factor concentrates, and gamma globulin. Automated technology has now been developed utilizing both centrifugal, and membrane separation devices (Haemonetics PCS centrifugal, Organon Teknika PLASMAPUR-membrane, HemaScience Autopheresis-C-spinning membrane) and is much faster and safer than the manual techniques with regard to the donor. The single biggest difficulty with automated technology is the high cost of the software, making the cost of producing source plasma by this type of technology, in general, not cost efficient at this time. However, fresh frozen plasma can be generated by this technology, which is cost efficient and provides a single donor source of 500 ml plasma, making the product safer for those patients that do require fresh frozen plasma by reducing the number of donor exposures to the patient.