Blood center perspective of granulocyte transfusions: future applications

The role of the blood bank in provision of an optimal granulocyte concentrate is discussed. The importance of the granulocyte dose is emphasized, and recent developments permitting the collection of larger numbers of cells are reviewed. In particular, the administration of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor to normal donors has been reported to result in dramatically increased neutrophil yields. Recent data has also suggested that increased efficiencies of collection can be realized by the use of hetastarch as the red cell sedimenting agent.