Brilsee Simeon1 , Satish Laxman Belagatti2
BACKGROUND Human blood till date has no substitute. Every unit of blood has to be used judiciously with minimal discard. The aim of this study is to evaluate the causes for discarding of blood and blood components. METHODS A total of 10597 units of blood collected from donors in ESIC MH Blood period from January, 2016 to December 2018, was studied. RESULTS Among the total of 10597 units of blood collected, 164 were not separated into any components. Of these 164 blood bags containing whole blood, a total of 66 (40.2%) was discarded. Of these, 93.9% were discarded due to expiry of date and 3.03% were discarded because these units were seropositive for Transfusion Transmitted Infections (TTI). 3498 (13.5%) units of blood components were discarded from a total of 25789 blood components prepared. The most common component discarded was platelets (21.7%) followed by FFP (17.3%). Causes for discarding components was leakage in 1774 component units (42.4%), component expiry due to non-utilization in 1287 (30.7%) and seropositivity for TTI in 438 (10.4%). CONCLUSIONS Training of staff as well as implementation of blood transfusion policies help to improve process and output of BTS. This would reduce the discarding of blood components and wastage due to non-conformance. Reducing the amount of discarded blood can contribute towards decreasing the total cost of blood and its components.
