Patients are charged for each unit of autologous blood collected. Directed donors are donors selected by a patient or the patient's family to give blood which will be labeled for a specific patient's use. These donors are usually family members or friends of the patient. Directed donors must meet the same donor requirements as allogeneic donors. Cooperation between the patient, patient's physician, hospital blood bank, and the blood center is essential to complete the procedure.
Platelet apheresis is a special type of donation in which the platelets are collected from a donor.
Platelets are needed by patients who are in danger of bleeding because of a low platelet count. The low platelet count may be due to such conditions as trauma, surgery, aplastic anemmia or cancer. During the apheresis donation, blood is taken from the donor's arm, flows through an instrument that spins and separates the platelets, and returns the remaining plasma and red cells to the donor. This procedure allows the collection of six to ten times more platelets than is collected through one whole blood donation. Apheresis donations take about two hours to complete.