Operational Strategies for Maintaining the Irradiated Blood Supply during Irradiator Failure

The use of irradiated blood components is essential for preventing transfusion-associated graft-versus-host disease, but irradiator failure may disrupt the blood supply.This paper reports the authors' experience of successfully maintaining the supply of irradiated blood components by applying an operational strategy involving external irradiation after cross-matching during irradiator failure.During the failure period, 116 units of blood components were supplied, and no transfusion delays or adverse clinical events occurred.This strategy enabled efficient resource utilization by irradiating only the blood components deemed compatible through cross-matching.On the other hand, it was associated with an increased operational burden related to transportation and scheduling, as well as the need for strict quality control.In addition, although multiple blood centers in Korea have obtained manufacturing approval for irradiated blood components, their practical implementation remains limited because of the constraints in the reimbursement system.This study shows that an external institution-based supply model can serve as a practical alternative during irradiator failure, and suggests that the proposed strategy may also apply to institutions without an irradiator.Therefore, both operational strategies and policy-level improvements are required to ensure a stable supply of irradiated blood components.(Korean J Blood Transfus 2026;37:89-95)