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Improving cord blood unit quantity and quality at King Abdullah International Medical Research Center Cord Blood Bank
Author(s) -
Jawdat Dunia,
Arab Suha,
Thahery Hadeel,
Almashaqbeh Walid,
Alaskar Ahmed,
Hajeer Ali H.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
transfusion
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.045
H-Index - 132
eISSN - 1537-2995
pISSN - 0041-1132
DOI - 10.1111/trf.12746
Subject(s) - cord blood , unit (ring theory) , medicine , blood bank , quality (philosophy) , business , operations management , medical emergency , psychology , engineering , philosophy , mathematics education , epistemology
Background Public cord blood banks ( CBB s) store cord blood unit ( CBU ) donations for anyone in need. However, strict regulations need to be followed to build up high‐quality bank products that can be used worldwide. We established a public CBB at a tertiary hospital in S audi A rabia. Here, we investigated the reasons behind rejecting or not collecting CBU s over 2 years (2011‐2012) and which steps were implemented to improve the number and quality of storable units. Study Design and Methods A total of 2891 mothers were evaluated. Reasons for rejecting donors, not collecting, and rejecting units before or after collection were analyzed and compared for the years 2011 and 2012. Results A total of 1157 (40%) CBU s were not collected, mainly due to staff availability, and 564 (20%) CBU s were rejected. The main reason for rejecting donations was the mother's or neonate's health. Rejecting CBU s after collection was due to low volume. A total of 1170 (40%) CBU s were successfully collected for potential banking and sent for processing; however, 58% were rejected in the laboratory due to low total nucleated cell counts. Several changes were implemented during the 2 years including physician education and awareness, in utero collection, cesarean collection, and staff recruitment. These changes positively affected the numbers of our collected units. Out of the initially eligible mothers in 2011, only 17% were banked; this was increased to 33% in 2012. Conclusions We identified the problems with collecting CBU s for banking and will keep improving our selection process of recruiting more CBU s of high quality.