RESUMO
Background: Blood donation is a safe procedure and thousands of persons donate blood without any ill effect, however few donor's show adverse donor reactions
Objective: To assess the occurance of adverse donor reactions in a sample of blood donors attending Iraqi National Bank in Baghdad
Patients and Methods: This is a cross sectional study, carried out in INBB between October and December 2013. The donors included in the study randomly. Especial form was prepared for each donor and the required information was recorded including the adverse reactions that were observed during donation and later for 15 minutes
Results: The study included 200 blood donors, their mean of age was 35 years with range of [19-66] years, their mean of weight was 88 Kg with range of [62-152] Kg. Twenty seven 13.5% donors showed adverse reactions during the first 15 minutes post donation and the most frequent reaction was hematoma at the venipuncture site with frequency of 3.5% for each reaction, nausea and dizziness 3% for each, muscular twitching 1.5%, weaknesses and syncope 1% for each while the least frequent reaction was convulsion with a frequency of 0.5%. The results showed that donors taking breakfast and donors with previous donations showed less frequency of adverse reactions
Conclusion: Blood donation is a safe procedure and 13.5% of the studied donors show adverse donor reactions and the most frequent reactions were hematoma followed by pallor and sweating while the least frequent reaction was convulsion and donors taking breakfast and donors with previous donations showed significantly less frequency of adverse reactions