Analysis of blood and blood components wastage in a tertiary care hospital in South India

Abstract

Objectives: The aim of the study is to determine the rate and reasons for blood and blood components wastage in the blood bank of a tertiary care hospital. Background: A major challenge facing the blood bank is to supply a sufficient amount of safe blood whenever required. India fell short of 1.9 million units of blood in 2016–2017. To overcome the shortage of blood supply, performance of blood bank can be increased either by increasing the level of resources from voluntary donors and/or by reducing the wastage of blood and blood components. Materials and Methods: This is a retrospective analysis of discarded blood components data in Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences from January 1, 2014, to December 31, 2018. The study analyzed the various factors responsible for discarding of whole blood, red cells, platelets, fresh frozen plasma (FFP), and cryoprecipitate units. Wastage rate was calculated with a percentage of total number wastage against the total number of collection. Results: A total of 36,631 blood components were prepared from 12,615 whole blood donations during this study period. Of the total, 7,103 (19.3%) components were discarded. The most common blood component discarded were platelets 5,980 (84%) followed by FFP 669 (9.4%) and packed red cells 451 (6.3%). Blood component expiry was the common reason for discarding. Conclusion: Implementation of proper blood transfusion policy, donor screening, and training of technical staff will help to reduce the discard rate and solve the shortage of these precious elements.

Keywords

• blood components
• discarding reasons
• training
• transfusion policy
• wastage percentage