Donor blood wastage: Reasons & Prevention

Abstract

Aims: 1 Analysis of various reasons for discard or wastage of donated human blood & 2) Discussion on possible preventive measures for minimization of this loss Materials & Methods: This retrospective study was conducted at the blood bank, department of pathology, GMERS medical college & hospital, Junagadh (Gujarat-India) and included data from records of previous 26 months (January 2017 to February 2019). Reasons for wastage were categorized into four groups namely expiry, under-collection, sero-positivity for TTI & others including leakage, contamination, hemolysis, etc. Results: Total 16,057 blood units were collected and out of them, 240 units (1.49%) were discarded. Out of discarded units, 13.33% were due to Expiry, 37.09% were due to Under-collection, 42.08% were due to Seropositivity and 7.50% were due to other reasons. Conclusion: It is almost impossible to achieve 0% wastage of donated blood. So, appropriate preventive measures must be taken in order to minimize the same.