Publication:

A cross sectional study on adequacy of blood transfusion and transfusion related infections in thalassemic patients attending a medical college hospital, West Bengal

Background Thalassemia is more prevalent in India. The main treatment of Thalassemia is blood transfusion. But the transfusion of blood has many side effects like iron overload, transfusion related infections etc. The objectives of the study were to assess the adequacy of blood transfusion for thalassemic patients and to determine the magnitude of transfusion transmitted infections among those patients.

Methods A cross sectional study was conducted in Murshidabad Medical College and Hospital, West Bengal for 1 month with the sample size of 116. The blood samples from the patients were taken from the patients attending for blood transfusion in transfusion centre of Murshidabad Medical College and Hospital for two weeks dated from 24.04.2017 to 05.05.2017 to check for the hemoglobin, ferritin level and hepatitis B, C and HIV infection.

Results Among the 116 patients, even after transfusion, 94% of the study participants have their hemoglobin levels below 7 gm/dl. Only 2 individuals got their hemoglobin levels more than 9 gm/dl and only 1 patient got HIV infection post transfusion which accounts for 0.9% of study population.

Conclusions Frequent Hb estimation will help to maintain the adequacy of blood transfusion and proper screening of the blood before transfusion can help in reducing these transfusion transmitted infections.