Evaluation of blood donor deferral causes in a tertiary care center
Dr. Rippal Kumar Bhimani, Priyanka Joshi, Ankita Kamaliya, Mansi Khodifad and Krishna Kachhadiya
Objective: Blood transfusions save many lives each year globally and henceforth blood is very important for the vitality of humans. In the blood donation, it is very important to maintain safety of the donor and recipient and therefore, donor selection is the most important assessment process of blood donation in addition to the screenings of blood bags for infectious diseases. However, deferrals of blood donors result in loss of precious blood/blood components available for transfusion. For preventing this, it is necessary to have knowledge of causes of deferral and their frequency. This study aims to analyze the blood donor deferral rates, find out various causes of blood donor deferrals and to facilitate proper referral and follow up measure to reduce the rate of temporary deferral.
Materials and Methods: It was a cross sectional two years retrospective study including all the blood donors reporting for blood donation from 1st Jan 2015 to 31st Dec 2016 at Dhiraj Hospital, a constituent hospital of S.B.K.S. Medical Institute and Research Center, Vadodara. The study was conducted by obtaining data from records maintained by blood bank and analyzed.
Results: Total 9180 people registered for blood donation during the defined time period and out of which 230 donors (2.50%) were deferred. Among the deferred blood donors, 153 (66.52%) were temporary and 77 (33.48%) were permanent. Among temporary deferrals, anemia was the most common cause whereas among permanent deferrals, hypertension was found to be the commonest cause.
Conclusion: Analysis and evaluation of blood donor deferral patterns will help medical personnel to emphasize on donor screening. Proper medical examination and explanation to the donor will motivate both selected and deferred donors to self-evaluate their eligibility to donate and return for donation in future.
