An evaluation of non-infectious adverse reactions following blood transfusion at a tertiary care referral teaching hospital in Southern India.

Sindhuja K; SreedharBabu KV; Anitha M; Praveen MD; Sriranjitha TVN

Volume : VIII, Issue : II, February - 2019

An evaluation of non-infectious adverse reactions following blood transfusion at a tertiary care referral teaching hospital in Southern India.

Sindhuja K, Sreedharbabu Kv, Anitha M, Praveen Md, Sriranjitha Tvn

Abstract :

Back ground: Though blood transfusion is life saving, it can also lead to certain adverse reactions which can be fatal rarely. Identification of the adverse reactions will help in taking appropriate steps to reduce their incidence and make blood transfusion process as safe as possible and this study has been undertaken to assess the frequency of adverse reactions occurring following whole blood or blood component transfusion in patients admitted at a tertiary care referral teaching hospital in Southern India.

Material and Methods: During the period of one year all the adverse reactions related to transfusion of blood and blood components in patients admitted at our hospital were recorded. They were analyzed and classified using standard definitions, based on their clinical features and laboratory tests.

Results: During the study period, a total of 13,532 whole blood and blood components were issued from our blood bank to 4,155 patients. Among them 23 (0.16%) adverse reactions were noted. The most common type of reaction observed was allergic (n = 9; 39.13%), followed by delayed hemolytic transfusion reaction (DHTR) (n = 4; 17.39%).Other reactions observed were feile non hemolytic transfusion reactions (FNHTRs) (n=3, 13.04%), hypotension (n=3, 13.04%),transfusion associated circulatory overload (TACO) (n = 1, 4.35%), transfusion related acute lung injury (TRALI) (n = 1, 4.35%) and delayed serological transfusion reaction (DSTR)(n = 2, 8.70%).

Conclusion: Frequency of transfusion reactions in the present study was 0.16%.This can be an underestimation of the true incidence because of underreporting which can be improved by hemovigilance system and one should consider for rationale use of whole blood and blood components.