How are platelets given?
Platelets are given by apheresis: your blood runs through a machine, a cell separator, which keeps the platelets and returns everything else to you straight away. Any healthy person aged 18 to 60 can give platelets, and more often than whole blood.
Why they matter
Platelets stop bleeding. One apheresis gives a whole dose for one patient, which would otherwise take five to eight whole-blood donors. Platelets keep for only five days, so new donors are always needed.
Who can
- 18 to 60 years old, as the Law on Transfusion Medicine says.
- ZTKV also asks for a weight over 60 kg and a month since your last whole-blood donation, and takes only women who have never been pregnant.
- Good veins and some free time.
- Tests are done before your first donation, and it is booked only once the results are good.
What it is like, and how long it takes
You lie or sit, as for whole blood, while the machine runs. ZTK Niš says it takes 45 to 60 minutes and collects about 250 ml of plasma with the platelets in it. Your body replaces the platelets in 48 hours.
How often
At ITKS platelets can be given every 15 days, at most 24 times a year. ZTKV does not publish its gap.
Where
Apheresis is not done at mobile drives, only at the institutes. At ITKS, Svetog Save 39 in Belgrade, you can ask on working days from 7 to 15 at 011/3812716 and 011/3812721. ZTKV keeps its own register of platelet donors in Novi Sad. The permanent places are in the guide.