Summary:
Donated blood should be taken as a 'gift of life’, offered by volunteers and
nonremunerated
blood donors, and based on human solidarity.
Objective: The aim of the study was to investigate the causes that lead a
potential
blood donor to a permanent or temporary deferral.
Method: The data were collected from the files of Blood Banks Services of 2
Hospitals (General Hospital of Athens EVAGGELISMOS and ARETEION Hospital) for
the time period from 1/1/2012 until 31/12/2012. All potential blood donors were
evaluated with the same questionnaire. For the recording and statistical
analysis of
the data, Microsoft Office Excel 2007 was used. From the archives of the
deferred
donors of the above 2 Blood Banks Services we recorded whole blood deferrals for
one year (2012) and analyzed the causes which led to their deferral. Due to a
variety
of causes for deferral which were recorded, the causes were divided into 17 main
categories.
Results: From 16884 potential blood donors, 13970 (82.8%) were deemed to be
appropriate for the procedure, while 2914 (17.2%) were rejected. From the 2914
deferred donors, 2098 (72%) were replacement donors, while 816 (28%) were
volunteers. Regarding the reasons of deferral, 2457 (84.4%) were temporarily
deferred, while 457 (15.6%) were deferred permanently. The most frequent causes
which lead to deferral seem to be primarily the presence of cardiovascular
disease or
symptoms (25%) and low serum haemoglobin (22.5%). Drug or medication intake
accounted for the 8.5% of deferrals, while specific epidemiological situations
(WNV)
accounted for the 6.5%. Rare reasons for deferral seem to be history of
malignancy
(0.5%) and recent childbirth (0.4%).
Conclusions: Despite the progress in medical research, a full substitute for
blood is
not yet found, thus humans remain the only source of blood and its derivatives.
That
fact, along with the continuously raising needs for blood and its derivatives
urge us
to attract and retain particularly regular volunteer blood donors. Special
criteria in
order to incorporate again temporarily deferred blood donors should be
established
in order to ensure the National sufficiency in blood and its derivatives.
Keywords:
Blood donation, Blood donors, Deferrals, Causes of deferral, Criteria
