Platelets are the clotting factor in blood. Healthy people have a surplus of platelets. The body continuously regenerates platelets. Donated platelets have to be used within 5 days. A Person can donate platelets every two weeks, or up to 24 times a year.
Many patients depend on regular platelet transfusions.
Platelets are collected through a process called apheresis. This process collects eight times the number of platelets collected from a single whole blood donation. The entire process takes about two hours. The blood circulates through a single use sterile tubing system into a cell separator machine which collects platelets from the blood. The remaining blood components are returned to the donor.