Platelet or Plasma Donations

Blood contains several components, including red blood cells, platelets, white blood cells and plasma. During platelet or plasma donation, your blood is collected and then separated into its components by a machine; the machine keeps the platelets or plasma and returns the rest to you. Your blood stays confined within a single-use sterile tubing kit and sterile equipment, so the process is completely safe. This procedure allows you to donate more frequently.

Platelet or plasma donations take approximately 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Mayo Clinic Blood Donor Center provides televisions, video-on-demand and wireless Internet access for donors to use during donations.

Platelet Donations (Plateletpheresis)

In this type of automated donation, platelets are collected and the remaining blood components are returned to the donor. Platelets help blood to clot and the platelets collected during plateletpheresis commonly are given to people with leukemia, people receiving chemotherapy and babies with severe infections.

In order to be eligible to donate platelets, the donor must meet all of the requirements for whole blood donation. They must also:

• Have donated whole blood at Mayo Clinic or double red cells, plasma or platelets elsewhere.
• Have not taken aspirin or any aspirin-containing medicine for 48 hours
• Donors can donate platelets as often as every eight days. They cannot donate more than 24 times in one year.

Did You Know
Platelets from a whole blood donation or automated donation are only good for five days. Red blood cells from a whole blood donation are good for 42 days.

Plasma Donations (Plasmapheresis)

In this type of automated donation, the liquid portion of the blood (plasma) is collected and the remaining blood components are returned to the donor. Plasma helps blood to clot and the plasma collected is commonly given to patients whose livers do not work, patients with burns and patients with severe bacterial infections in their blood.

To donate plasma, donors must meet all of the requirements for whole blood donation. Donors who are blood group AB are special plasma donors because their plasma can be given to any of the other blood types. Because of this, AB plasma is frequently in short supply.

Donors can donate plasma every four weeks.

To learn more about automated donations or to see if you are eligible, contact us at 507-284-4475 or donateblood@mayo.edu.

Did You Know
AB+, AB- and IGA deficient donors are best suited for plasma collections. They make up a very small population of donors.