A prospective study of analysis of reasons for discarding blood and it’s components in (m.b.g.h. blood bank), department of transfusion medicine and immunohematology, r. n. t. medical college udaipur (rajasthan)

Background: Blood Transfusion Services (BTS) is the vital part of modern health care system without which efficient medical care is impossible. Blood transfusion is an important constituent of health-care delivery system. Blood is essential for human life and has no substitutes. So every unit of blood is very precious it should not be wasted. This mandates the proper analysis of the discard of this scarcer source. Objectives: The present study was done to analyse causes of discarding blood and it’s components, To analyse the discarding rate of blood and it’s components and To make strategies that minimise discard of blood as low as possible. Material and Methods: This prospective record based study was carried out in Blood Bank (Department of Transfusion Medicine & Immunohaematology) of Maharana Bhupal Government Hospital (RNT Medical College), Udaipur from July 2014 to December 2016. The data were collected from donor screening record, component preparation record, Transfusion transmitted infection testing record (serology register), NAT Testing record (since July 2015) and discard record. Result: Of the total collected 39696 blood units 15156 units were whole blood, 24507 were PRBC & FFP, 6240 & 33 units were RDP and SDP respectively. Discard rate of whole blood(316) and components (333) in the present study out of 39696 units was 1.63%. The discard rate of whole blood was 2.08% and Major cause of discarding whole blood due to seropositivity was HBsAg(85.14%) followed by 8.11%, 4.95%, 1.35% and 0.45% due to HIV, VDRL, malarial parasite and HCV respectively. The commonest component were discarded Platelets 1138(18.24%), followed by CRYO 4(5.97%), FFP 518(2.11%) and PRBC 333(1.36%). TTI was the main cause for PRBC and FFP 87.39% and 56.18% respectively whereas expiry was the main reason of discarding platelets 83.57%. Conclusion: It is concluded that total units discarded were 1.63%, which is quite low looking to no screening methodology available for seropositivity before blood collection, which is one of the main cause of discarding. Expiry of platelets was main reason for discard due to short shelf life and no prediction of demand.