title: Retrospective evaluation of adverse transfusion reactions following blood product transfusion from a tertiary care hospital: A preliminary step towards hemovigilance.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The goal of hemovigilance is to increase the safety and quality of blood transfusion. Identification of the adverse reactions will help in taking appropriate steps to reduce their incidence and make blood transfusion process as safe as possible.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To determine the frequency and type of transfusion reactions (TRs) occurring in patients, reported to the blood bank at our institute.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective review of all TRs reported to the blood bank at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, between December 2007 and April 2012 was done. All the TRs were evaluated in the blood bank and classified using standard definitions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  During the study period a total of 380,658 bloods and blood components were issued by our blood bank. Out of the total 196 adverse reactions reported under the hemovigilance system, the most common type of reaction observed was allergic 55.1% (n = 108), followed by febrile non-hemolytic transfusion reaction (FNHTR) 35.7% (n = 70). Other less frequently observed reactions were Anaphylactoid reactions 5.1% (n = 10), Acute non-immune HTRs 2.6% (n = 5), Circulatory overload 0.5% (n = 1), Transfusion related acute lung injury 0.5% (n = 1), Delayed HTRs 0.5% (n = 1). Not a single case of bacterial contamination was observed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The frequency of TRs in our patients was found to be 0.05% (196 out of 380,658). This can be an underestimation of the true incidence because of under reporting. It should be the responsibility of the blood transfusion consultant to create awareness amongst their clinical counterpart about safe transfusion practices so that proper hemovigilance system can be achieved to provide better patient care.
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Praveen
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: Rakesh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Thapliyal
authors.forename: Poonam
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Coshic
authors.forename: Kabita
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Chatterjee
keywords: Adverse transfusion reactions; blood transfusion; hemovigilance