Now, get registered as a platelets donor at KGMU

LUCKNOW: Now, you can register your name with the KGMU blood bank to donate platelets instead of whole blood through a procedure called apheresis. KGMU started the registration process on World Blood Donors Day on Thursday.

Apheresis is a medical technology in which the blood of a person is passed through an apparatus that separates out one particular constituent and returns the remaining. Apheresis of platelets is a procedure in which an individual donates platelets for a patient with the same blood group. The registration process is similar to the one for voluntary blood donation.

The difference between usual blood donation and apheresis is that instead of the whole blood, only platelets are taken out from the donor’s blood. “Whole blood donation takes a few minutes, but apheresis for platelets takes about two hours,” said head of KGMU’s transfusion medicine department and blood bank, Prof Tulika Chandra.She said that in apheresis the blood group of the donor and the recipient has to be the same. So if a patient with A positive needs plateKlet via

› For registry an individual can come to our blood bank and submit the details. A person can donate blood again only after a gap of about three months, but platelet can be donated via apheresis sooner.

PROF TULIKA CHANDRA, HoD, transfusion medicine & blood bank

apheresis, the donor has to be of the A positive blood group. Often patients have donors but it is difficult to have a donor of the same blood group.

“For registry an individual can come to our blood bank and submit the details. Though a person can donate blood again only after a gap of about three months, platelet can be donated via apheresis sooner. Any person who has donated blood can again donate platelet via apheresis after a gap of a week only,” said Prof Tulika.

During the day, the department took out an awareness rally and several organisations conducted blood donation camps including Airtel.