A colleague had a request for cryo
yesterday which rather flummoxed him. He was asked for ten units of the stuff.
That’s a lot…
However when you read
the factsheet it says:
“Cryoprecipitate is available as a
single unit, or as a pooled product made up of five single units. Pooled units
are more commonly used to treat adult patients”
It turns out that what I call one unit
of the stuff is actually five. Where the medics wanted ten I would issue two
and everyone would be happy.
One lives and learns.
Much the same happened when I was
recently asked for prothrombin complex concentrate. I was asked for “one
unit” and I inadvertently caused confusion by pointing out that the smallest
amount I had was two hundred and fifty units. The poor doctor wanted “a
therapeutic dose”.
There’s quite a bit of confusion caused
by the use of the words “unit” and “therapeutic dose”. They mean
different things to different people.
Maybe someone might standardize the
terminology.
I wonder who that person might be…
(We’ll gloss over FFP which is
prescribed per millilitre but comes in varying amounts of about 250-300 ml
depending on the individual unit…)
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