Profile of Blood Donor Deferrals in a Tertiary Care Centre-Our Institutional Experience

Background: It is the prime duty of transfusion services to provide safe, adequate and timely need of blood and the blood products. Understanding the reasons for donor deferral can help in planning more efficient recruitment strategies and educate and motivate temporarily deferred donors in order to maintain a safe and adequate supply of blood products.

Aims of the Study: To evaluate and analyze the blood donor deferral pattern in a tertiary care hospital blood bank and to review its influence on blood safety.

Methodology: This retrospective study was conducted in the blood bank, CHRI from the year January 2015 to December 2018. Data like demographic data, clinical history, physical examination, haematological examination, stored in the blood bank was retrived. The donors will be deferred based on standard WHO guidelines. The collected deferral data was analyzed using SPSS software 2011version 20.

Results: During the study period there were 7010 registered blood donors. The deferral rate was 5.19%. Among the donor deferrals, females were more commonly deferred ie 31.66%. The deferral rate among voluntary and replacement donors are 4.71% and 11.62% respectively. The rate of permanent deferral (17.86%) was less compared to temporary deferral (82.14%). Among temporary deferral anaemia is the most common cause (27.75%). Seropositive for Hepatitis B is the most common cause for permenant deferral (52.30%).

Conclusion: In our study temporary deferral is higher this necessities the need of education, motivation of these donors for future donation to maintain a healthy and safe donor pool.