Analysis of discard of blood components and strategies for optimal and safe transfusion practices at a tertiary care hospital blood bank

Abstract

Blood transfusion service is lifeline of health care system. Blood is a valuable resource so it should be utilized judiciously with minimal wastage. Seropositive donors not only construct some threat of Transfusion-transmissible infections (TTI) such as HIV, HBV and HCV in blood recipient, they also increase the discard in blood bank. This study was conducted to determine discard rate of different blood components, identifying different causes of discarding the blood and its components and to hit upon different approaches to optimize the use of blood. A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted at the blood bank of tertiary care hospital from September 2015 to October 2021. All collected Blood units were screened for five infections - HIV, HBV, HCV, Syphilis and Malaria and blood units were discarded as per NACO guideline. During study period a total of 8695 donors were donated the blood and screened for TTIs. From all donations, 201(2.31%) were females donors and 8494(97.69%) were males donors. A total 172 seropositive donors were identified among 8695 donors with an overall seroprevalence of 1.98%.