Today our topic of discussion is Procedure of Blood Transfusion.

Procedure of Blood Transfusion

Procedure

Explain the procedure to the patient and his relatives to get cooperation.
Make him comfortable.
Take the equipment to the bedside.
Needle or casual should be inserted in the vein with complete aseptic technique.
Keep the needle in position with adhesive tape.
In small children or in case of difficult patient splint must be used. It should be securely placed bandage.
Regulate the rate of flow from 40-45 drops per minute or according to physicians order Observe the patient constantly inspect the bottle frequently, if chill or shivering any other occurs at the time of infusion, stop it immediately and irrigate the tubing with sterile fluid and inform it to the physician.

After Care of Patient

After the infusions have been started, the nurse should see that it is secured carefully by using the arm board, bandages, adhesive plaster, etc.
The movement of the patient in bed should not dislodge the IV cannula.
The cut down site is inspected frequently to detect infiltration of fluid the dislodgement of the cannula, etc.
The incision site should be cleaned and dressed daily to help in the healing of the wound After a week, the sutures are removed. .

Complications

Incompatibility: When the donor’s blood is not compatible with the recipient’s blood, it is known as hemolytic reactions. In a hemolytic reaction, there is clumping of the erythrocytes which blocks the capillaries. Causes the erythrocytes to disintegrate and release hemoglobin into the blood. It eventually gets into the kidney tubules. Their blockage produces kidney failure. The symptoms of hemolytic reaction are chills, fever, and headache of back pain, then dyspnea, cyanosis, chest pain, and oliguria .
Pyrogenic reactions: It is due to bacterial contamination of the blood or of the administration set. The symptoms are fever, shaking chills warm flushed skin, headache, black pain and nausea which progress on to hematemesis, diarrhea and delirium.
Allergic reactions: The patient may be sensitive to substances in the plasma. The symptoms are urticaria, occasional wheezing, joint, pains, generalized itching, nasal congestion, and circulatory collapse.

Circulatory overload: It is due to the rapid flow; also it may occur by giving whole blood to the severe chronic anemic patient, a patient with heart failure. The symptoms are bounding pulse, engorged peripheral veins, dyspnea, cough slow the transfusion or step the transfusion and inform the doctor.
Transmission of infection diseases: If donors are not carefully screened for diseases like jaundice, syphilis, malaria, filarial and AIDS, he may get untoward reactions and he may suffer from above diseases.

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