Recipient hemovigilance at a tertiary care hospital in Southern India: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Introduction: Information on incidence of various transfusion reactions could help in early recognition as well as management and could also help to institute adequate measures to make blood transfusion as safe as possible. The primary objective of the present study was to determine the frequency and types of adverse transfusion reactions in patients who required blood component transfusion. Methodology: This was a cross-sectional, observational study conducted over a period of 22 months from September 2014 to June 2016 in the Department of Transfusion Medicine, JIPMER. All patients admitted to the wards of various specialty departments who were transfused with blood components and reported to have transfusion reaction during or after transfusion of blood components were included in the study. Results: A total of 90,758 components were issued during the study period, and 137 transfusion reactions were reported which accounted for 0.15% of total transfusions. Febrile nonhemolytic transfusion reaction (46.7%) was the most common reaction followed by allergic reaction (31.3%). Among different blood components, packed red blood cells (82%) were most commonly associated with transfusion reactions. Conclusion: Transfusion reactions unless serious are grossly underreported either due to lack of attributing the adverse event to transfusion or because the milder reactions are usually managed and unreported as the staff are too often used to having them, especially in chronically transfused patients.