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Background: Estimating the probability that a donor will have or not have an adverse event is useful for staff knowledge to give blood donors reassurance upon request., Study Design and Methods: One-thousand donors from the general donor pool were interviewed for seven potential adverse events 3 weeks after a 525-mL whole-blood phlebotomy. The four most common adverse events were bruise (22.7%), sore arm (10.0%), fatigue (7.8%), and donor reaction (7.0%). A stepwise logistic regression analysis was performed based on five donor characteristics that were studied: age, weight, sex, race, and first-time donor status. The contribution of each significant or marginally significant factor to each adverse event was quantified., Results: For donor reaction, weight (p < 0.0001) and age (p = 0.015) were significant contributors, and first-time donor status (p = 0.054) was a marginally significant contributor. An equation was derived, and the donor reaction rate can be estimated for a group based on the donor's weight, age, and first-time donor status. Similar analyses were performed for fatigue, sore arm, and bruise., Conclusion: Based on the derived formulas and with the use of a spreadsheet, data can be entered and the probability that a donor will have (or not have) a donor reaction, fatigue, sore arm, or bruise can be estimated.

Background: An arterial puncture during whole-blood phlebotomy is a rare event. A series of arterial punctures was evaluated to determine the clinical findings and the incidence of complications., Study Design and Methods: Arterial punctures reported by staff between January 1, 1999, and February 28, 2001, were evaluated. Follow-up interviews were done with the phlebotomy nurses to determine what the clinical findings were and what the incidence of complications was., Results: Twelve cases of arterial punctures were identified from 410,000 blood donations (0.0029%; 1/34,000). Eleven cases had a fast blood-flow rate of <4 minutes; 9 units (75%) were bright red; and in 4 cases (33%), the needle was pulsating. One case was diagnosed because the donor developed a brachial artery pseudoaneurysm 3 days after donation. Four hematomas occurred, for an occurence rate of 33 percent (0.35% in the general donor population). There was also an association with newly trained staff., Conclusion: Fast blood-flow rate is the most common clinical feature after an arterial puncture. Bright red blood is usually, but not always, present, and a pulsating needle is sometimes present. Hematoma is a relatively common complication, and brachial artery pseudoaneurysms are rare, although one case was seen in this study.

Background: Vasovagal reactions occur in a small, but significant number of blood donors. These reactions may decrease return donation and disrupt blood collection activities. The purpose of this study was to define the contributory role of sex, age, weight, blood pressure, and pulse in vasovagal reactions with syncope in blood donors., Study Design and Methods: A retrospective case-control study involved 1890 blood donors with syncope from three large United States blood centers during 1994 and 1995. Case controls and random population controls were used in a logistic regression analysis to determine the significance of individual variables to syncopal reactions., Results: Female donors, young donors, first-time donors, low-weight donors, and donors with low predonation blood pressure had higher absolute donation reaction rates than other donors. When each variable was adjusted for other variables by regression analysis, age, weight, and donation status (first-time or repeat donor) were significant (p<0.0001), and sex, predonation blood pressure, and predonation pulse were not. The most important variables, in descending order, were age, weight, and donation status (first-time or repeat donor)., Conclusions: Donation-related vasovagal syncopal reactions are a multifactorial process determined largely by age, weight, and first-time donor status.

Background: There is little information in the medical literature on t he clinical spectrum of blood donation-related neurologic needle injury and on its frequency in a blood donor population., Study Design and Methods: Sixty-six cases of blood donation-related neurologic needle injury were identified from nursing reports made during a 2-year collection period involving 419,000 whole blood donations. Telephone follow-up was completed on 56 of the 66 cases to better define clinical symptoms, the donor's desire for physician consultation, recovery times, and residual effects., Results: Symptoms in 66 donors included numbness or tingling (n = 54), excessive or radiating pain (n = 43), and loss of arm or hand strength (n = 8). Of the 56 donors with complete follow-up, 17 (30%) consulted a physician one or more times. Recovery times in these 56 donors were <3 days (n = 22), 4 to 29 days (n = 17), 1 to 3 months (n = 13) 3 to 6 months (n = 2), and >6 months (n = 2). Fifty-two of 56 donors achieved a full recovery, and 4 other donors had only a mild, localized, residual numbness. The incidence of blood donation-related neurologic needle injury was 1 of every 6300 donations., Conclusion: While donor recovery may in some cases require a great deal of time and/or physician consultation(s), total recovery appears to be the rule. The incidence of blood donation-related neurologic needle injury is relatively low.

BACKGROUND: Whole-blood donation times in a donor population when there are no impediments to blood donation at any point can be used to determine the shortest median whole-blood donation time. This statistic is relevant to blood donors and collection staff. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Small, overstaffed blood drives in August 2004 were evaluated via operation records and supervisor interviews to determine if there were any impediments to whole-blood donation at any point in the process. Four-hundred ninety-two whole-blood donations from 33 blood drives were not impeded and were evaluated for whole-blood donation times. Registration records (entry time) and blood donor records (phlebotomy start and end time) provided three objective time points for the process, the median postphlebotomy interval at the phlebotomy station was estimated, and 10 minutes was assigned for the refreshment period. RESULTS: The median donation time for the whole-blood donation process was 50 minutes. The 25 to 75 percent range was 46 to 56 minutes, and the 10 to 90 percent range was 42 to 64 minutes. First-time blood donors had blood donation times that were 5 to 6 minutes longer than in repeat blood donors (55.5 min vs. 50 min), and women had slightly longer donation times than men (51 min vs. 49 min). Five percent of the donors had donation times that exceeded 69 minutes. CONCLUSION: The median whole-blood donation time and range under the best circumstances was defined based on the process in place in our blood center in August 2004. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]