Patient Blood Management in pediatric and adolescent bone marrow donors: results from an Italian survey.

Background: Current national and international guidelines (Italian Bone Marrow Donor Registry [IBMDR], World Marrow Donor Association [WMDA] standards) provide an indication for preoperative autologous blood donation (PAD) only in adult family and volunteer non-family donors in anticipation of bone marrow (BM) hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) donation to avoid the use of homologous transfusions. In addition, there is no clear guidance from the relevant scientific societies regarding pediatric and adolescent donors.

Material and methods: To assess the actual use of PAD in pediatric (up to 14 years) and adolescent (aged 15-18 years) family donors in relation to BM HSC donation in the five years 2017-2021, a specific online questionnaire was administered to blood establishments and clinical units of pediatric transplantation programs responsible for BM HSC collection.

Results: Adherence to the project was 100% (18/18 centers). During the five-year period considered, 273 BM HSC donors (205 pediatric and 68 adolescent) were registered. Forty percent of the non-trait carrier donors who underwent PAD received iron therapy in preparation for BM HSC donation; only 4.8% of the pediatric and none of the adolescents had hemoglobin values below the age limit at donation. Finally, 66.4% of pediatric donors and 15.4% of non-trait carrier adolescent donors who did not undergo PAD received homologous transfusions during BM harvest.

Discussion: The present study highlights the highly heterogeneous criteria for the use of PAD (including calculating of the volume of whole blood collected) and the lack of a specific policy in preparation for BM HSC donation, either from non-trait carrier donors or those with sickle cell or thalassemia trait, both pediatric and adolescent.