Exploring the Causes of Wastage of Blood and Its Components in a Tertiary Care Hospital Blood Bank

Background Blood donated by healthy people is extremely important as it is integral in emergent situations. The authors aimed to address and highlight the main causes of the wastage of donated blood and its components. Methodology A cross-sectional study was conducted at a blood bank of a tertiary care center between January 2019 and March 2020. All the information regarding blood donated and blood components during the study period was documented on a predefined proforma. The blood bags which were seropositive, reached their shelf-life expiry, expired due to non-utilization, or quantity was non-sufficient were discarded. Blood showing any changes of either hemolysis or turbidity was also discarded. Other reasons for discarding blood units included leakage (damage to or fault in the blood bag), hemolytic reasons, or miscellaneous reasons. Results A total of 9308 blood donations were received as donations during the study period. Out of the total donations, 7,988 (85.8%) were subjected for component formation including red cell component (RCC), fresh frozen plasma (FFP), and platelets. A total of 23,964 components were prepared using the donated blood. Out of these 2128 (8.87%) units were discarded. Upon stratifying the discarded blood according to the type of component, it was found that platelets made up 1148 (53.9%) units, red cell component composed 324 (15.2%) units, and fresh frozen plasma composed 313 (14.7%) units of discarded blood. Seropositive was reported to be 32.3%. Of this, the red cell component made up 276 (85.2%) units. Conclusion The present study reported a discard rate of 8.87%. Of these, the majority was composed of platelets due to the shortest shelf life. Leakage of blood bags remained a predominant cause for the discard of blood components. Seropositivity for hepatitis B, C, and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was reported in almost 30% units of donated blood. Further large-scale studies should be conducted to reassess how wastage of donated blood can be minimized.