The Possibility of Increasing the Current Maximum Volume of Platelet Apheresis Donation

Japan’s aging society and its declining birthrate are threatening to upset the balance of supply and demand of blood products. We investigated the possibility of increasing the current maximum volume of platelet apheresis donation (PA) to the current maximum volume of plasmapheresis donation (PP), without changing the maximum number of platelets collected. We analyzed PA and PP anonymized data (675,406 donors) according to gender. The incidence of initial overall side effects (side effects 1), vasovagal reaction (VVR), and non-VVR were compared according to age, body weight and measured volume at each donor group using the independence test (by the chi-squared or Fisher’s exact test).Side effects were neither significantly different nor relatively high in donors both aged 30-69 years with weighing 65-