title: Adverse reactions during voluntary donation of blood and/or blood components. A statistical-epidemiological study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Voluntary donors normally tolerate blood donation very well, but, occasionally, adverse reactions of variable severity may occur during or at the end of the collection. Aim of this study was to estimate and possibly avoid the cause of unwanted reactions.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study was conducted over a period of 6 months, from 24(th) October, 2005 to 24(th) April 2006. The donor population analysed consisted of 4,906 donors (3,716 male and 1,190 female). In total, 3,983 (81%) voluntaries have donated whole blood, 851 (17%) plasma from apheresis, 64 (1.3%) experienced multicomponent donation, and 8 (0.1%) were donors of plasma-platelet apheresis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Only 63 donors (1.2% of all the volunteers) suffered some kind of adverse reaction: 59 (1.08% of the subjects) had mild reactions (agitation, sweating, pallor, cold feeling, sense of weakness, nausea), and only 4 (3 males and 1 female, 0.2%) had more severe disorders, including vomiting, loss of consciousness, and convulsive syncope.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although the number of donors who developed disturbances during or at the end of blood donations was very low, it is nevertheless desirable to reduce risks to a minimum. A set of advices is provided for preventing problems.
authors.affiliation: U.O. Immunoematologia e Trasfusione Sangue, Ospedale Misericordia e Dolce, Azienda USL4, Prato, Italy.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Crocco
authors.forename: Domenico
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: D'Elia