Analysis of reasons for discarding blood and blood components in a blood bank of tertiary care hospital in central India: A prospective study

Background: Many modern surgical procedures could not be carried out without the use of blood. There are no substitutes for human blood. Thus, proper utilization of blood is necessary with minimal wasting. Materials and Methods: A total of 10,582 donors donated blood during the study period of 19 months in blood bank of a tertiary care hospital, central India from 1st of November 2009 to 31st May 2011, which were screened. Results: A total of 346 whole blood bags were discarded. Out of these 346 blood bags, 257 (74.30%) were discarded because of seropositivity for transfusion transmissible infectious diseases. A total of 542 blood components were discarded against 3702 blood components prepared during the study period. Among blood components discarded, most common units were platelets. The most common cause of discarding the blood components was expiry of date due to nonutilization (87.00%). Conclusion: A properly conducted donor interview, notification of permanently deferred donors will help in discarding less number of bags from collected units. Similarly, properly implemented blood transfusion policies will also help in discarding less number of blood bags due to expiry. These discarded bags, because they are unutilized are both financially as well as socially harmful to the blood bank.