Title
Rationale for discard of blood and blood components in a tertiary care hospital blood center in Central India: A prospective observational study
Authors
Veer Singh Mavai, Ramesh Chandrakar* & Minal Wasnik
Affiliation
Department of Transfusion Medicine, AIIMS Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India; *Corresponding author
Veer Singh Mavai - E-mail: veer.mavai1997@gmail.com
Ramesh Chandrakar - E-mail: drrameshchandrakar@gmail.com
Minal Wasnik - E-mail: minal8681@yahoo.co.in
Article Type
Research Article
Date
Received August 1, 2026; Revised August 31, 2026; Accepted August 31, 2026, Published August 31, 2026
Abstract
Blood and blood components are limited healthcare resources and understanding the causes of their discard is essential for improving transfusion service efficiency. A prospective observational study was conducted at the Department of Transfusion Medicine and Blood Centre, AIIMS Raipur, India, from May 2024 to October 2025 to evaluate the magnitude and causes of blood component discard. Among 52,760 blood components prepared during the study period, 5,226 were discarded, resulting in an overall discard rate of 9.91%, with platelet concentrates (13.18%) and fresh frozen plasma (12.06%) showing the highest discard rates. Storage-related causes accounted for the largest proportion of discarded units (49.77%), mainly due to expiry and leakage during storage or thawing, while quality-control failure was the leading processing-related cause, particularly among platelets. Thus, strengthening inventory management, quality assurance practices and cold-chain maintenance may substantially reduce avoidable blood component wastage and improve the utilization of transfusion resources.
Keywords
Blood discard, blood components, packed red blood cells, fresh frozen plasma, platelet concentrates, cryoprecipitate, blood bank, transfusion medicine, quality control, inventory management
Citation
Mavai et al. Bioinformation 22(8): 4673-4677 (2026)
Edited by
A Prashanth
ISSN
0973-2063
Publisher
License
This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.
