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Fresh Frozen Plasma Transfusion

Renal and Transfusion Therapy

Fresh frozen plasma transfusion delivers the liquid component of donated blood, separated from the red cells and platelets and frozen shortly after collection to preserve the clotting factors it carries, to patients who are bleeding because of multiple clotting factor deficiencies. It is used in conditions such as severe liver disease, massive traumatic blood loss requiring large-volume transfusion, and the urgent reversal of warfarin's anticoagulant effect, situations where several clotting factors are deficient at once rather than a single isolated factor that a more concentrated product could replace more efficiently. Fresh frozen plasma is included on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines for its role in managing serious bleeding in trauma and surgical care.

Facts
Disputed
Origin Year
1940 1
The cited source states only that plasma first came into medical use during the Second World War (1939-1945); 1940 marks the early-war period rather than a precisely pinned date.
Classification
Status
Standard of Care 1
Fresh Frozen Plasma Transfusion
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FAQs

Is fresh frozen plasma still the usual way to reverse warfarin?

Its use for warfarin reversal has declined since prothrombin complex concentrate became available.

Less often than it used to be. A review of plasma transfusion for excessive warfarin anticoagulation reports that the use of fresh frozen plasma in such scenarios has been reduced in recent years, because prothrombin complex concentrate has emerged and quick reversal is needed before emergency surgery.
Connections

Treats

Fresh frozen plasma transfusion is standard treatment to replace clotting factors in disseminated intravascular coagulation.

Hemophilia, Conditions

Fresh frozen plasma or factor concentrate transfusion is a standard treatment for bleeding episodes in von Willebrand disease.

Sources
1. Wikipedia: Fresh Frozen Plasma
Wikipedia
  • Definition section
    Plasma first came into medical use during the Second World War.
  • Clinical use status
  • In Group: Blood Transfusion and Blood Components, Introduction, sentence 1
    Fresh frozen plasma (FFP) is a blood product made from the liquid portion of whole blood.
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