Retrospective Study of Blood Transfusion Complications in the Capital Region of Denmark from 1999-2017: Characteristics of Potentially “Dangerous” Blood Donors?s

Abstract

Objectives: We hypothesized that the blood donors most frequently involved in complications would induce more and severe immunologic transfusion complications compared to other donors, i.e. potentially “dangerous”. Secondary aims were differences in demographic variables. Background: Donor-related mechanisms may contribute to allogeneic blood transfusion complications and may represent a dangerous treatment adverse event. Materials and Methods: By analyzing transfusion data from the Capital Region of Denmark from January 1, 1999 to December 31, 2017; 2,574,646 blood transfusions and 9,779 transfusion complications from 194,432 blood donors were included in our dataset. We divided donors into three groups based on the number of complications and complication frequency (potentially “dangerous” vs. two differently defined control groups i.e. control 1 and control 2), and compared the nature of transfusion complications and demographic variables by statistical analysis. Results: There were no differences in the proportion of complication types between the potentially “dangerous” donors and control donors, and no difference in the proportion of complications from RBCs, plasma or platelets according to ABO and RhD blood types. However, more potentially “dangerous” donors were female and had ABO blood type B compared to control donors (p<0.001 and p<0.01, respectively). The potentially “dangerous” donors were younger compared to control donors (40.36 years vs. 45.24 years and 42.84 years, p<0.001). Conclusion: The potentially “dangerous” did not display more/severe immunologic transfusion complications compared to control donors. However, they differed in regards to gender, age and blood type. Further research regarding the differences in complication frequency per donor and demographic variety is warranted.