[Blood component therapy with additives].

Since 1988, 96% of all blood donations in Sweden are given in a multiple blood bag system using a SAGMAN-System. This system has many advantages over conventional blood bags without additive solution. We routinely eliminate 50-80% of the leucocytes and more than 80% of the platelets by separation of buffy-coat from red cells using such a system. We have compared the preparation results of a SAGMAN-System with a similar system containing top and bottom outlets (BAT) using 2 different semiautomatic separation systems. With these new bag systems and separation devices we received similar results. However by optimizing the procedure it should be possible to obtain a higher reduction of leucocytes and platelets at comparable red cell yield using the BAT-System.