Abstract
A simplified preparation of leukocyte-poor blood (LPB), employing microaggregate filtration following centrifugation, was compared with 3 other commonly used and accepted methods. The study group was comprised of 1283 patients who received a total of 14,561 units of LPB. Of those, 361 patients received 2235 U of LPB following a primary febrile reaction, and 922 patients received 12,326 U of LPB prophylactically. In both patient populations the microaggregate filtration method proved at least as effective as the inverted spin method and was clearly superior to the buffy coat-poor method in preventing febrile transfusion reactions.