Reducing transfusion deaths

doi:10.1136/bmj.325.7356.0/g

Reducing transfusion deaths

Human error is a totally avoidable cause of transfusion related morbidity and mortality. In their clinical review of bloodtransfusion medicine, Regan and Taylor (p 143) report that inthe United States, fatal misidentification errors occur in 1 in600 000 to 800 000 transfusions and non-fatal errors in 1 in 12000 to 19 000 cases. Pilot studies of barcode patient identificationsystems are currently under way to assess their feasibility invarious clinical settings. The authors also state that, whetheror not it is transmissible by transfusion, Creutzfeldt-Jacob diseasemay have a considerable impact on the availability of blood fortransfusion.