Nationwide Implementation of Pathogen Inactivation for All Platelet Concentrates in Switzerland.

Introduction: Bacterial contamination of platelet concentrates (PCs) has been identified as the most prevalent transfusion-associated infectious risk. To prevent PC-related septic transfusion reactions, the Intercept® pathogen inactivation procedure was introduced for all PCs in Switzerland in 2011.

Methods: Based on numbers of transfused units and mandatorily reported adverse events with high imputability, we compare the risks associated with transfusion of conventional PCs (cPCs) and pathogen-inactivated PCs (PI-PCs).