American journal of clinical pathology
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Am. J. Clin. Pathol. · Feb 1992
Comparative StudyThawing fresh frozen plasma in a microwave oven. A comparison with thawing in a 37 degrees C waterbath.
We show in this report that fresh frozen plasma (FFP) can be thawed faster using a specifically designed microwave oven (MWO) (WesLabs Plasma Defroster, Westmorland Laboratories, Inc., New Brunswick, Canada) than using 37 degrees C water bath (WB) and that the thawed product was equivalent to FFP thawed by WB. Paired plasma bags (200 mL/bag) from plasma pools were frozen, stored at -35 degrees C, and thawed in parallel, one bag in MWO, the other in WB. ⋯ Except for thrombin time (MWO = 20.1 seconds; WB = 19.8 seconds; n = 24; P = 0.023), no significant differences were observed in the 23 other coagulation parameters and plasma proteins studied. Faster thawing and freedom from risk of contamination may make MWO the method of choice for emergency thawing of FFP.