What is the difference between blood components and whole blood?

Now you can see blood donation vehicles in many places in the city, so people now have many ways to donate blood and the whole process is very convenient. But what many people don’t know is that the components of blood people donate can be classified into different categories. For example, you can donate component blood and whole blood. I believe that many people don’t know the difference between component blood and whole blood, so the following introduces professional knowledge in this area.

The difference between blood components and whole blood:

Whole blood, the mixture formed by collecting blood from the human body into a blood collection bag is called whole blood, which includes all the components of blood cells and plasma;

Other components in whole blood, such as granulocytes, platelets, factor V and factor VIII, have basically lost their activity. Only albumin, immunoglobulin and fibrinogen are relatively stable. Therefore, the effective components of stored whole blood are mainly red blood cells, followed by albumin and globulin.

As the name suggests, blood component is a certain component of blood.

The most common component donation currently is the donation of platelets;

Unlike donating whole blood, component blood donation is when the donor passes the blood through a strictly sterilized, disposable closed tube, and the required component is separated and collected by a blood separator. The other blood components are then returned to the donor.

Donating blood components is basically the same as donating whole blood. A needle is inserted into one arm through a disposable tube, which allows the blood to flow into a cell separator, where the required components (such as platelets) are separated, while the other blood components are returned to the donor. The whole process takes about one and a half hours.

Blood donation is generally divided into two types: whole blood donation and platelet donation. These two types are determined based on the renewal capacity of blood components. Whole blood is donated every 6 months and platelets are donated every 2 weeks. Whole blood includes platelets, red blood cells, plasma, etc. The process of donating platelets is longer than that of donating whole blood, usually more than half an hour. It only filters the platelets in the whole blood, and other components are returned to the body. Donating whole blood takes about 5 minutes without transfusion. For blood donors, it doesn’t matter which one is better, as they both do no harm to the body. Of course, if the blood donor has high blood lipids or a slightly higher blood viscosity, it is okay to donate whole blood to reduce the viscosity slightly, but this requires long-term persistence. For the blood recipient, whole blood and platelets have different uses. Whole blood contains red blood cells, platelets, and plasma. After the initial collection, they will be separated for different uses. If only platelets are donated, the effect of such platelets will be better than platelets separated from whole blood.