An Insight into Donor Blood Unit???s Wastage in a Hospital-Based Blood Bank from Pakistan

Objective: Blood supplies in developing countries are often limited and blood wastage in low socio-economic countries usually led to a very serious consequence. Therefore, we analyzed the wastage of blood products amid limited supply to identify areas where apposite intervention could be employed to avoid such wastage. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on the wastage of blood products during the years 2015-2016 at our tertiary care hospital. Donor’s demographical data includes name, age, gender; contact number, and type of donor (replacement or voluntary) were recorded on a structured questionnaire. All donors were selected according to established inclusion criteria considering age (≥ 18 years), body weight (≥ 50 g/dL), hemoglobin levels (≥ 12.5 g/dl), various reasons for the blood wastage were noted and recorded. The data were analyzed using IBM statistics SPSS version 22 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY). Results: A total of 33,456 bags of blood were collected during the study period, each was segregated into three components, with a total of 10,0368 units. Data indicated that 10977 units (10.9%) of blood components were wasted. 5643 (5.6%) units were discarded due to Transfusion Transmitted Infections (TTI), remaining 5334 (5.3%) due to miscellaneous reasons. In reactive units, Hepatitis C, Hepatitis B, Syphilis, and HIV reactivity rates were found to be 2.1%, 1.6%, 1.7%, and 0.09% respectively. Of the miscellaneous reasons, 4574(4.5%) units of platelet concentrates were discarded; of which 3750 (3.7%) were expired, 767 (0.7%) due to red cell contamination, and 57 (0.05%) due to lipemic appearance. For packed red cells, 726 (0.7%) units were wasted due to stock time expiry and 24 (0.02%) wasted due to hemolysis. Only 10 (0.009%) units of fresh frozen plasma were wasted due to ruptured units. Conclusions: The blood wastage rate is low as compared to other developing countries and appears high in comparison with the developed world. An appropriate inventory management structure along with the training and regular staff competency testing is necessary to ensure optimum utilization and minimize wastage.