Are single-needle protocols equivalent to dual-needle protocols for platelet apheresis?
In light of the increasing demands being placed on cytapheresis donors and their occasional venous problems, it has become necessary to use 1-needle in addition to 2-needle separation techniques in thrombocytapheresis. We therefore compared five 1-needle and three 2-needle programs on four different cell separators and found that meanwhile both the platelet yields and the leukopenia (controlled by Nageotte chamber counting) of the products obtained with the 1-needle technique are equivalent to those obtained using the 2-needle technique, as long as the program is suitably adjusted.
