NON-INFECTIOUS SERIOUS HAZARDS OF TRANSFUSION

Safe transfusion therapy is a basic requirement for advanced medical care. In order to establish priorities for improving safe transfusion for patients, it is essential to distinguish transfusion safety from blood safety. Blood safety refers to the safety of the product. In contrast, transfusion safety refers to the safety of the overall process of transfusion from donor to recipient.1 Blood safety is not matched by increases in transfusion safety. Enormous progress has been made in blood safety during the last few decades. Donor restrictions and high performance viral screening assays have virtually eliminated viral transmission by blood transfusion in the developed world. For example, the risk of hepatitis or HIV from transfusion has declined by ap-proximately 10,000 fold. In contrast, during the same period there has been little change in the risk of non-infectious hazards. Some result from medical errors made during the collection of a patient sample or during blood administration. Data suggest that the rate of medical errors occurring in hospitals is increasing and a labor shortage in hospi-tal laboratories also decreases patient safety. For example, a re-cent study from a prestigious university program documented tha