No abstract

Introduction:Errors in the process of pretransfusion testing for blood transfusion can occur at any stage from collection of the sample to administration of the blood component. The present study was conducted to analyze the errors that threaten patients’ transfusion safety and actual harm/serious adverse events that occurred to the patients due to these errors.Materials and Methods:The prospective study was conducted in the Department Of Transfusion Medicine, Shri Maharaja Gulab Singh Hospital, Government Medical College, Jammu, India from January 2014 to December 2014 for a period of 1 year. Errors were defined as any deviation from established policies and standard operating procedures. A near-miss event was defined as those errors, which did not reach the patient. Location and time of occurrence of the events/errors were also noted.Results:A total of 32,672 requisitions for the transfusion of blood and blood components were received for typing and cross-matching. Out of these, 26,683 products were issued to the various clinical departments. A total of 2,229 errors were detected over a period of 1 year. Near-miss events constituted 53% of the errors and actual harmful events due to errors occurred in 0.26% of the patients. Sample labeling errors were 2.4%, inappropriate request for blood components 2%, and information on requisition forms not matching with that on the sample 1.5% of all the requisitions received were the most frequent errors in clinical services. In transfusion services, the most common event was accepting sample in error with the frequency of 0.5% of all requisitions. ABO incompatible hemolytic reactions were the most frequent harmful event with the frequency of 2.2/10,000 transfusions.Conclusion:Sample labeling, inappropriate request, and sample received in error were the most frequent high-risk errors.

No abstract

Background: Thalassemia is a common genetic disorder which is associated with a lot of complications. Frequent blood transfusions result in increased iron deposition in various tissues leading to dysfunction of many organs of our body. Endocrine disorders constitute a major part of such complications increasing the morbidity of thalassemia manifold in the affected patients.Methods: This is a prospective study carried out in 64 thalassemia major patients attending thalassemia day care centre at SMGS Hospital Jammu from December 2014 to November 2015. Patients were examined and investigated for presence of one or more endocrine disorders including diabetes mellitus, hypothyroidism and delayed puberty.Results: Endocrine disorders were detected in a total of 22 patients. Diabetes mellitus was detected in 4.7% (n=3) patients, hypothyroidism in 4.7% (n=3) patients and delayed puberty was found in 26.6% (n=17) patients. Mean serum ferritin level was found to be 2885.5 ng/ml and there was no significant difference in patients affected with endocrine disorder and those without any endocrine disorder.Conclusions: Endocrine complications occur commonly in patients of thalassemia major. Increasing life span of thalassemia patients has increased the number of patients living with these disorders. A lot of morbidity occurs due to the presence of one or more of these disorders. Hence timely detection of these disorders by screening in all patients of thalassemia should be done to initiate treatment at the earliest so as to limit the morbidity caused by these disorders.