Does it cost more to have blood filtered to remove white blood cells?
Typically filtration adds 10% to 20% to the cost of preparing blood. The significant cost savings in hospital charges and reduced patient hospital stay associated with the use of filtered, leukocyte reduced blood and platelet transfusions, more than offsets the cost to leukocyte reduce by filtration. It has been estimated that for surgery patients alone the use of filtered blood would save the U.S. healthcare system six to twelve billion dollars per year.
