ABSTRACT
Four main blood types routinely identified are A,B,AB and O. Bombay phenotype individuals are typed as group O on forward ABO typing. Their red cells lack A,B,H antigens and their sera contain anti-A, anti-B and anti-H. It is important to correctly type individuals who are Bombay phenotypes because these individuals require autologous blood donation or blood from another Bombay individual. The present prospective study was conducted over two years to study the prevalence of Bombay phenotype with transfusion recommendations to the blood recipients. All the donor and patient’s blood group were confirmed by tube method. All blood samples showing O blood group on froward grouping and agglutination with O cell in reverse grouping, were tested for Bombay blood group using anti-H.Out of 76,204 cases constituting 49,604 donors and 26,600 patients, Bombay phenotype was detected in 12 cases (0.015%) constituting 4 number of donors and 8 number of patients. All cases were further ruled out to be para Bombay phenotypes and were found to be non secretor by agglutination inhibition test. Four cases out of 12 patients requiring blood transfusion 3 could be issued Bombay blood group and but death occurred in one case due to delay in the surgery for the unavailability of this rare phenotype. Thus, it is recommended that all blood group donors and patients should be routinely screened by both forward and reverse grouping for screening of Bombay phenotype to reduce the risk of hemolytic transfusion reaction resulting from issue of O blood group to Bombay blood group recipients