Keywords:
Audit, Blood components, blood usage, transfusion, periodic review

ABSTRACT

Purpose : Utilization of blood components is an important part of patient management. Indications for their use should be judicious, purposeful and appropriate. The use of blood and blood products should be restricted to the minimum to avoid unnecessary exposure to donor antigens, adverse reactions and transfusion transmissible diseases.

Methods : In a retrospective study, details of blood components including Fresh frozen plasma, Platelet concentrate and packed red cells used for transfusion were assessed and correlated with clinical indications and transfusion triggers to investigate the appropriateness of component transfusions.

Results : The total number of blood components used during the study period (2008-2011) was 42,498. FFP was the most utilized product (20,285) i,e 47.73 %, followed by platelet concentrate (9,034) i,e 21.25 % and packed red cells (4,515) 10.62 % with a ratio of 4:2:1 respectively. The study showed an upward trend of use of blood components with nearly a two fold increase in component usage in four years. 93.8% blood components were used judiciously and 6.2% were inappropriately used in a representative year 2010.
 
Conclusion:

Present study concludes that the audit of blood and blood component usage is very important to assess its utilization rate and trend across time and to follow guidelines for its appropriate use. Such an audit should be a continuous process