What You Must Know About Cord Blood Banks
Posted by: Raymond Lam in Health, tags: HealthCord blood banks are mainly of two types, i.e. public cord blood banks and Private Banks. Normally, public cord blood banks are set up to facilitate umbilical stem cell research for disease treatment and for utilization in transplants of non-relatives. If you decide to save your baby’s cord blood at a public cord blood bank, they won?t provide you the link between your baby and her cord blood unit. Therefore, in time of need, there is no guarantee that you will be able to access your baby?s cord blood unit. On the contrary, if you donate your baby’s cord blood to a private bank, no one else is authorized to access and use that particular cord blood unit without your permission.
The cord blood bank is certified to process hematopoietic stem cells collected from umbilical cords. To process these cells, the banks are required to have the infrastructure including laboratory and administrative processes that are inspected, approved and comply with the regulations of AABB. The cord blood bank should have its own setup for laboratory and storage facility. Those using a third party’s setup do not take responsibility of the critical procedures of umbilical cord blood cell processing. Moreover, you will not know when the contract between your bank and its third party will terminate.
Nevertheless, private blood banks do have their own share of obstacles. The cost of cord blood storage in private banks is quite high and is likely to discourage many. The biggest attraction towards private cord blood banks is the guarantee that the cord blood a patient preserves, will not be used by anyone else, unless the donor himself permits. Compared to the lower chances of cord blood cells transplants in a child, storage prices charged by these banks are relatively quite high.
The capability of these enterprises, credentials of these private banks play as strong determining factors in the U.S. Banks accredited by the American Association of Blood Banks are entertained mostly by the hospitals. After cord blood collection, the samples are sent to these blood banks for processing and cyropreservation. Donors must check out the records related to the number of cases in which blood banks have used their stored samples in transplants. Recent estimation concludes that there is only 1% chance for autologous use of cord blood cells.
Ideally, you should choose a cord blood bank in your city itself. The lesser your cord blood unit has to travel before preservation, the better. Always enquire about the transportation procedure before you register yourself. Remember, the usual courier carriers like FedEx and DHL do not guarantee proper temperature control during the transportation. However, do not hesitate in opting for a cord blood bank which has better records and facilities in another city, if transportation is not a problem.
While selecting a blood bank, narrow down your choices to those banks that have a dedicated infrastructure and personnel for umbilical cord blood processing and use ‘controlled rate’ freezing for safe processing of cells.
Entries (RSS)