21-day cold-stored platelets may maintain hemostasis

A randomized cardiac surgery trial found noninferior bleeding control with refrigerated platelets, although reexploration rates and blood product requirements were higher.

By
Andrea Surnit
October 16, 2026
5 min

MDSpire News

1

In the phase 3 CHIPS trial, cold-stored platelets maintained noninferior hemostatic efficacy compared with room-temperature platelets in cardiac surgery patients.
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Cold-stored platelets met the prespecified noninferiority criterion at every evaluated storage duration through 21 days, with posterior probabilities exceeding 99.9%.
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Chest tube output at 24 hours did not differ significantly between groups, and longer cold-storage duration did not appear to affect output.
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Reexploration for bleeding occurred in 4.2% of cold-stored platelet recipients and 1.8% of room-temperature platelet recipients, while cold-stored recipients received more blood products.
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Exploratory safety analyses found no statistically significant between-group differences in thrombotic events, other reported adverse events, or 28-day mortality.