Evaluation of Our Experience on Arterial Puncture Phlebotomy in Whole Blood Donation Practice

Abstract

Introduction - Phlebotomy, an invasive procedure, is performed for the blood donation practice. The altruistic attitude of blood donation can be made pleasurable if the donor safety is kept as the main concern. Safe blood donation procedure is also an essential prerequisite to increase the Voluntary Blood Donation Drive. Adverse donor reactions are not uncommon in this relatively safe procedure. One such donor reaction is the rare event of Arterial Puncture during phlebotomy. Aim - To evaluate our experience on the Arterial puncture phlebotomy in Whole blood donation. Materials and Methods- Donor demographics, Phlebotomists experience on the suspected arterial puncture were evaluated during the study period of 8 years from January 2008 to December 2015.Results- Total donors -16,708, Arterial punctures were 3(incidence of 0.018 percent ),all were first time Voluntary male donors,2 cases suspected with the rapidity of blood flow  during the procedure and same discontinued in less than 3 minutes and 1 case suspected due to delayed bleeding,  hematoma formation. In all cases the blood was bright red color, phlebotomy puncture site was the Median cubital vein on the left upper limb. Immediate post donation care with good communication, kept all the 3 donors away from anxiety and follow up period was uneventful. We had all of them for repeat voluntary blood donation (100 percent).  Conclusion - Our study shows, the rare event of arterial   puncture during the Whole Blood Phlebotomy, could be   tackled judiciously without further complications if the   expectation and high suspicion for the same is kept, and  supervised more closely, making the donation safe, anxious free which aids in repeat donation .