REFERENCES

1. Blajchman MA, Goldman M, Baeza F: Improving thebacteriological safety of platelet transfusions. Transfus MedRev 18:11-24, 2004

2. Goldman M, Blajchman MA: Blood product-associatedbacterial sepsis. Transfus Med Rev 5:73-83, 1991

3. Lee CK, Ho PL, Chan NK, et al: Impact of donor arm skindisinfection on the bacterial contamination rate of platelet con-centrates. Vox Sang 83:204-208, 2002

4. Mcdonald CP, Heatley C, Hartley S, et al: The validationand monitoring of pre-venepuncture arm cleansing at theNLBTC. Transfus Med 4:56, 1994 (suppl, abstr)

5. Perez P, Salmi LR, Follea G, et al: Determinants of transfu-sion-associated bacterial contamination: Results of the FrenchBACTHEM Case-Control Study. Transfusion 41:862-872, 2001

6. Perez P, Bruneau C, Chassaigne M, et al: Multivariateanalysis of determinants of bacterial contamination of whole-blood donations. Vox Sang 82:55-60, 2002

7. Cid J, Ortin X, Ardanuy C, et al: Bacterial persistence onblood donors’ arms after phlebotomy site preparation: Analysisof risk factors. Haematologica 88:839-840, 2003

Reply to Drs Cid and Lozano

To the Editor:We have read and agree with the letter from

Drs Cid and Lozano about the importance of

phlebotomy site preparation in avoiding bacte-rial contamination of platelet concentrates. In astudy using contact plate cultures, we notedlarge variability in the number of bacteriapresent in cultures from different donors beforeskin disinfection. However, there was no signif-icant difference in the number of bacteria cul-tured from both arms of the same donor. Therewas a weak correlation between the predisinfec-tion and postdisinfection culture results withsome disinfection methods but not with others.1

Ideally, disinfection methods should be effica-cious and robust enough to eliminate skin flora,even in donors who are more heavily colonizedbecause of their lifestyle or occupation.

Mindy GoldmanCanadian Blood ServicesOttawa, Ontario, Canada

REFERENCE

1. Goldman M, Roy G, Frechette N, et al: Evaluation ofdonor skin disinfection methods. Transfusion 37:309-312,1997

© 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.doi:10.1016/j.tmrv.2004.04.004

236 CORRESPONDENCE