Retrospective evaluation of prospective blood donor deferral in a tertiary hospital-based blood bank in South-East Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Blood transfusion safety is vital to improving the quality of health-care delivery, particularly in developing countries. An efficient donor deferral system is critical to blood transfusion service because it ensures the safety of both prospective donors and recipients. Objective: We sought to determine the pattern of prospective blood donor deferral with a view to understanding the dynamics of blood donor sourcing in a tertiary hospital-based blood bank in South-Eastern Nigeria in this study. Subjects and Methods: The blood donor records from the blood transfusion unit of our hospital from April 2014 to September 2015 were analyzed in retrospect. Screening results for transfusion transmissible infections, hemoglobin concentration, and information on the donor selection of the blood bank were retrieved from the blood bank records. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 20.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) computer software. Descriptive statistics were employed to represent the distribution of donor characteristics as means (΁ standard deviation) and percentages. Results: A total of 5249 individuals presented for donation within the study period with an overall donor deferral rate of 32.50%; out of which 29.24% were temporarily deferred while 3.26% were deferred permanently. The most common reason for temporal deferral was low hemoglobin concentration (25.30%), while positivity for hepatitis B virus (1.71%) was the most common reason for permanent deferral. Conclusion: Low hemoglobin concentration is responsible for the majority of prospective donor deferral in our population which may reflect the burden of anemia in the general population.