Advantages and disadvantages of the buffy-coat method over the platelet-rich plasma method for whole blood processing
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|
| ∙Low contamination of both the red blood cells and platelet concentrate with white blood cells [6] | ∙Loss of RBCs, especially neocyte (range from 18 to 28 mL) [7] |
| ∙Improved yields of platelets and plasma [6] | ∙Small loss of some coagulation proteins activity in buffy-coat plasma [8,9] |
| ∙Reduced platelets activation [10,11] | |
| ∙Higher proportion of discoid platelets and better hypotonic shock response (HSR) at the end of storage [12] | ∙Complex and relatively high-cost procedure |
| ∙Less incidence of febrile nonhemolytic transfusion reactions (FNHTRs) after transfusion of a platelet concentrate [13] | |
| ∙Availability of whole blood-derived prestorage-pooled platelets | |
| ∙Logistic advantages because buffy-coat can be processed the same day or the following day [14] | |
| ∙Improved work flow | |
| ∙Greater flexibility in the use of platelet additive solution (PAS) and pathogen reduction technology (PRT) [15,16] |