Principle:

Blood components must be maintained at specified temperatures to avoid hemolysis, bacterial contamination, and maintain full efficacy (e.g. coagulation factor activity.)

Policy:

1. Freshly collected whole blood for blood component preparation must be kept between 20-24C if  platelets are to be made.  Otherwise, it must be maintained between 1 and 10 C.
2. Prepared RBCs and thawed plasma must be transported between 1 and 10 C.
3. Platelets (pools and apheresis), thawed cryoprecipitate, and granulocyte concentrate must be transported at 20-24 C.
4. Frozen components (frozen RBCs, FFP, FP24, cryoprecipitate) must be kept frozen during transport.
5. There must be an appropriate means of documenting that the proper temperature was maintained.  Examples of compliance may include:
   1. LCD stickers that change color if the component goes outside the selected temperature range.
   2. Digital temperature recording systems—Examples:
      1. TempTale ® or other temperature recording devices (added to a transport container without a temperature-controlled container)
      2. Temperature controlled transport containers with integral recording systems
      3. The recording session for each transport episode should be downloaded, reviewed and saved.
6. If the temperature goes outside the specified temperature range, the components cannot be used for transfusion or manufacture.
7. All devices must be validated to meet their specified temperature-recording capabilities before being used.
8. Specific SOPs for the use of the selected monitoring devices must be prepared and in use.

Note the different temperature ranges for refrigerated components stored in the blood bank (1-6C) versus transport (1-10C).

References:

Section 5.6.5, Standards for Blood Banks and Transfusion Services, Current Edition, AABB, Bethesda, MD, USA