Reasons for discarding whole blood and its components in a tertiary care teaching hospital blood bank in South India

Introduction: Each unit of blood is precious and has to be utilized properly with minimal discards. The aim of this study was to find out the reasons for discarding blood and blood components. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively studied all whole blood and blood components collected during January 2013 to June 2014 at our tertiary care teaching hospital blood bank in South India. Results: Of the 5261 whole blood bags, 298 (5.7%) were discarded. Of these, 146 (49%) were discarded because of seroreactivity for transfusion transmitted infections (TTI). Of the 19586 blood components prepared, 1449 (7.4%) were discarded. Among blood components discarded, most common units were platelets (16.3%). The most common cause of discarding the blood components was due to expired date (36.9%). Conclusion: A properly conducted donor screening, notification and counselling of permanently deferred donors will help in discarding less number of bags which are positive for different TTI. Properly implemented blood transfusion policies will help to utilize the blood components in a proper way resulting in discarding the less number of blood bags due to expiry.