Effect of donor arm washing on microbial growth at phlebotomy site in first time blood donors

Abstract

Background: Microbes at the phlebotomy site are the important source of bacterial contamination of blood products. Various methods to reduce their load at phlebotomy site have been tried and have always being improvised upon. Few of the blood centres have adopted a policy of making the donors wash their arms with soap and water before disinfection for phlebotomy. However the utility of this policy has not been studied. Aim: The aim was to study if washing the phlebotomy site with soap and water before blood donation would make an impact or change the microbiota at the site. Materials and methods: The study included 200 whole-blood donors who were randomly chosen and after obtaining an informed consent were included in the study. The donors were alternately allocated into donation arm washing (n=100) or non washing (100) group. The swabs were taken from the phlebotomy site from both the groups and cultured for microbial growth. The results were compared to see for difference between the groups. The statistical analysis was done using IBM SPSS Statistics Desktop Software version 22.0. Results: Multiple organisms were isolated in only three of the 40 donors in the arm washed group compared to 24 of the 50 donors evaluated in the control arm and this difference was statistically significant (p<0.01). Conclusion: This simple add on step of washing the donor arm before donation reduced the microbial floral load at the phlebotomy site.