Abstract
Transfusion of blood and blood components is a critical element for the delivery of healthcare services to patients. Tools to help improve the safety of the blood supply of a country include:
i) Clinical Transfusion Guidelines to improve transfusion practices.
ii) An Audit System to monitor adherence to the guidelines as well as the effects of adjustments to the guidelines.
iii) A Haemovigilance Program, which monitors the entire blood supply chain, develops measures and solutions to problems that might threaten the safety of blood component recipients, and monitors the implementation of these corrective actions.
Transfusion dependent patients are those who require frequent and long-term transfusion support to sustain life. Most of these patients have been diagnosed with one of the following conditions:
Thalassemia syndromes
Sickle cell anaemia
Chronic hemolytic anaemias
Bone marrow failure syndrome, aplastic anaemia, and myelodysplastic syndrome.
In additions to the potential complications of red blood cell (RBC) transfusion common to all recipients, there are special problems that are unique in transfusion dependent patients who are on chronic transfusion support. The most common of these complications are alloimmunization and iron overload. Specific measures must be considered to decrease the burden of these complications on patients' outcomes.