Pattern of Utilization of Blood and Blood Products in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Background: Blood banks should be aimed at high quality of transfusion practices in terms of standard practices from screening of donors, collection, separation and issue of blood and blood products. Regular transfusion audits should be carried out in the blood bank to know the utilization trends. Aims and Objectives: To study the utilization pattern of blood and blood components in a tertiary care hospital. Materials and Methods: It was a retrospective cross-sectional study carried out at the blood bank of a tertiary care hospital for a period of three years from 2015-2017. Details of collection of whole blood, preparation of components, departments requesting blood products were collected from the records of the blood bank. Data entered in excel and frequency and distribution of variables were calculated. Result: A total of 10072 blood components were prepared during the study period of three years. Out of the 2372 whole blood collected during the study period, 1981 (83.5%) were utilized. Out of the 4961 components prepared, 4726 (95.3%) of packed cells, 2942 (59.3%) of platelets, 4516 (91%) of Fresh frozen plasma was utilized. During the study period, Obstetrics and Gynecology department requested 3610 (35.8%) blood products, followed by Orthopedics department 2098 (20.8%). Conclusion: Every blood bank should audit the pattern of utilization of blood and blood products which can serve as an internal quality control for the effective functioning of blood bank. A good communication between the clinicians and the blood bank personnel will minimize the inappropriate usage of blood and blood products.