Donor blood wastage: a study from blood bank Chamba (H.P)

Abstract

Background: Blood and its components are very important for human life as there is no substitute for human blood. No major surgical procedure can be performed without the use of blood in any hospital or clinic. Ideally in a good set up, wastage of blood and blood products should never occur. The aim of this study was to assess the burden of blood wastage in our blood bank, reasons for the wastage, and to cut down blood wastage to a minimal amount by adopting new methods and techniques.Methods: A retrospective study was carried out in Department of Blood Bank of Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru Govt. Medical College, Chamba (H.P) over a time period of one year from 1st January 2017 to 31st December 2017.Results: In our study period, there were 35 discarded blood units due to various reasons forming 3.52% of total discard. Majority of units were discarded due to expiry (51.4%).Conclusions: Our study found expiry/outdated units to be most common reason for discard (51.4%). This kind of wastage may be reduced by better management of blood bag collection, storage and utilization. TTI was another significant reason for blood discard in our blood bank (14.28%). We can bring down the number of discard units by proper training and educating our blood bank staff. Strict adherence to donor selection criteria and proper past medical history should be obtained from blood donors.