• In Rennes, the French Blood Establishment has a new regional technical platform.

  • This is where all the collections carried out each day in the region are received.

  • The EFS teams are then responsible for preparing the blood products which will be transfused to the patients.

It's a simple gesture that saves lives.

Each year in France, nearly three million blood donations are collected from around 1.6 million donors.

But what happens to these blood bags once collected?

To find out, head to the new regional technical platform of the French Blood Establishment (EFS) which was inaugurated at the end of last week in Rennes.

It is there, in this brand new building of 1,200 m², that all the donations made daily in Brittany are received.

A very timed circuit is then triggered to allow the blood to be transported from the donor to the patient.

“It's a race against time because we only have 24 hours to test the conformity of the blood collected and prepare the blood products,” underlines Sébastien Bois, head of the technical platform at EFS Bretagne.

The process, very rigorous, starts at the donation stage.

In addition to the blood bag, sample tubes are collected and then sent to the biological qualification laboratory in Angers where they will be analyzed immediately.

A centrifuge to separate the components

Without waiting for the results, all Breton donations are sent to the technical platform where the EFS teams will separate the three components of blood: red blood cells, platelets and plasma.

“The blood taken is never transfused like that to the patient,” says Sébastien Bois.

He is given only the blood product he needs.

A blood donation can therefore save three lives”.

But before proceeding with the separation, you must first go through the leukodepletion stage.

It consists of filtering the blood contained in the pockets in order to reduce the number of white blood cells "which are of little interest and present a transfusion risk", specifies the scientist.

The blood bags then pass through a centrifuge which will allow the three components of blood to be separated.

"It's like a vinaigrette, the layers are superimposed according to their density", smiles a technician.

Surplus, Brittany supplies other regions

Once separated, the red blood cells, platelets and plasma will each be kept in separate bags which will then be stored.

But not in the same place because each component has its own shelf life and temperature.

Red blood cells can thus be stored for forty-two days at a temperature between 2 and 6°C and plasma for three years at -30°C.

"But for the wafers, it's only seven days at a temperature between 20 and 24°C", specifies Sébastien Bois.


It is only once all these steps have been completed that the blood products will be made available to establishments that request them.

Breton hospitals of course in priority but also establishments from other regions, Brittany being surplus and rather good student for blood donation.

Health

“Patient blood management”, limiting blood transfusions to improve patient care

Health

Strasbourg: "It's not Messmer" ... We attended a blood test under hypnosis

  • Health

  • Medicine

  • Blood donation

  • Blood

  • reindeer

  • Brittany