COVID-19 pandemic and blood transfusion services: The impact, response and preparedness experience of a tertiary care blood center in southern Karnataka, India

Abstract

Introduction : With the outbreak of COVID-19 and its containment measures, blood centers faced a huge challenge in balancing blood demand and supply and devising a preparedness plan to withstand the uncertain situation. This study assesses the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on blood transfusion services and discusses the appropriate mitigation strategies adopted. Methods : We analyzed our center's blood transfusion services during the first half-period of the pandemic (Y3) and non-pandemic years 2018(Y1) and 2019(Y2) in two-quarters Q1 (pre-lockdown), from January to March and Q2 (post-lockdown), from April to June. The blood donation variables, the packed red blood cells (PRBCs) demand and the utilization pattern were compared between pandemic (Y3) and non-pandemic years (Y1 and Y2) in each quarter. The mitigation strategy adopted at every step of the transfusion service is highlighted. Results : During post-lockdown (Q2) of the pandemic year (Y3), the blood donation was majorly by repeat donors (83%) from the in-house site (82.5%). Furthermore, the proportion of outdoor donation, deferral, blood collection, demand and issue demonstrated a significant drop of 50%, 32.6%, 33%, 31.8% and 32.3%, respectively, in comparison to Q2 of the non-pandemic years (Y1 and Y2), with a statistically significant difference for surgical and hemorrhagic indications (p < 0.05). Coping strategies, such as blood donor education and motivation using e-platforms emphasizing eligibility during the pandemic, staggering of donor in-flow, postponement of elective surgeries and donor and staff’ COVID-19 safety assurance, were followed. Conclusion : The timely adoption of coping strategies played a crucial role in the better handling of shortcomings at our center's blood transfusion services caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Two-dimensional ultrasound signs as predictive markers of massive peri-operative blood loss in placenta previa suspicious for placenta accreta spectrum (PAS) disorder

“…Accurate estimation of the expected blood loss during an operation and preparation of the appropriate amount of blood products for transfusion is one of the major concerns when preparing for PAS surgeries, particularly in non-tertiary hospitals or hospitals with no blood bank [2,19,39]. If enough blood components are not prepared or available, the patient may face the morbidity of massive hemorrhage or even death, [14,15] while if an unnecessarily large amount is prepared, there will be wastage, which is especially to be avoided in areas that lack a blood bank [40,41]. Various methods to predict blood loss in PAS have been reported in previous studies, including the use of pregnancy histories, various ultrasound signs with 2D and/or 3D techniques or even MRI [7, 11-13, 24, 26, 27, 34, 35], although MRI has shown low accuracy in predicting severe PAS disorders [29].…”

Effect of COVID-19 pandemic on blood transfusion service: an experience from a regional blood transfusion center

“…After the pandemic lockdown in March 2020, all the variables significantly decreased gradually (Tables 1 and 2 and Figs. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. During the pandemic lockdown in 2020, the annual decrease in blood collection, request for blood components, cross-match, and issue was -46.17%, -45.24%, -44.6%, and -42.87%, respectively, as compared to 2019.…”

Implementation of the blood donation preservation strategy at Indonesian red cross (IRC) blood donor unit (BDU) Banda Aceh during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…This study states that donor education through social media has an important role in donor preservation, repeat donors are familiar with the information provided by blood services so that blood donor information during COVID-19 is conveyed to repeat donors. 9 Table 1 shows the majority of the types of donors shown in the table are voluntary donors with a percentage of 99% in 2019, 98.4% in 2020 and 98.6% in 2021. At the ministry's data and information center The Indonesian Health Ministry in 2018 noted that 80% of donors who came to blood services were volunteers.…”