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Aim of the study The lack of traceability and monitoring of blood donors and transfused patients constitute a barrier to the most basic rules of haemovigilance and overall good transfusion practices. This study draws up an inventory of knowledge, attitudes and clinical practice of blood prescribers in Niamey. Materials and methods A questionnaire was administered to 180 prescribers of blood products in Niamey in 2011. Questions were related to basic informations on blood transfusion and clinical use of blood. Analyses were performed using SAS 9.3 version. Results The sample consisted of 180 respondents from several professional categories: 51 physicians (28.33%), 10 medical students (5.56%), 84 nurses (46.67%), 15 anaesthesiologist assistant (8.33%) and 20 midwives (11.11%). Among these, 22.2% received training in blood transfusion safety. Half of the respondents (50.8%) got between 50 and 75% of correct answers, 45.8% got less than 50% correct while 3.35% scored more than 75% correct answers. The overall quality of responses was higher among physicians compared to other prescribers ( P < 0.0001); among respondents who received training in transfusion safety ( P < 0.0001); and among males ( P = 0.0306). For some items, subjects with more experience scored the best. Conclusion The level of knowledge is still inadequate. More training in transfusion practices is necessary for prescribers of blood products. Accompanying measures to improve transfusion practice must be considered or strengthened through assessments, knowledge update/upgrade (regular, ongoing training) and establishment of active and motivated hospital transfusion committees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses several questions related to detection of bacterial contamination in platelets concentrates (PC) during blood transfusion sent to experts. Topics discussed include method of PC storage, use of pathogen inactivation to prevent transfusion of bacterially contaminated PCs and determination of hydrogen ion concentration on last storage day of PCs.

The article presents questions and answers related to prophylactic platelet transfusions, the use of platelet additive solution (PAS) and the transfusion of platelets from Rhesus factor positive donors to Rhesus factor negative recipients.

The article presents questions and answers related to the role of transfusion therapies services in cellular therapy including the procedures where transfusion services would be involved, the disciplines in which transfusion services would cooperate as well as the disciplines that would cooperate for cellular therapies.