Archives of pathology & laboratory medicine
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Arch. Pathol. Lab. Med. · Aug 2006
Implementation of a redistribution system for near-outdate red blood cell units.
Many remote hospitals keep small on-site stocks of red blood cell (RBC) units for emergency use and to support patient care programs. In Canada, the blood supplier does not accept returned units into inventory. Discard rates can, therefore, be high. ⋯ Redistribution systems can be an effective way to reduce RBC unit discard rates. Even simple transportation systems have many factors affecting the RBC unit temperature. Novel temperature stabilizing materials may make future transportation of RBC units more reliable.