SALALAH -- Speakers at the National Laboratory Symposium on Blood Banking laid stress on adoption of best practices in blood transfusion, not only to save a precious life but also to create awareness for blood donation among common people. The general message of the symposium was the value of blood donation as a service to humankind. The symposium was held yesterday at Hilton Salalah under the auspices of Dr Khalid Mohammed al Mashikhi, Director General of Health Services, Dhofar governorate. A large number of health officials, doctors and paramedics were present on the occasion. Expert presentations were made on topics like, 'Use of blood products in neonatal ICU'; 'Haymolytic disease in newborn'; 'principles of compability testing'; 'universal red blood cells'; 'Appropriate use of blood and blood components'; and 'Role of aphresis in clinical medicine'.
Experts also spoke on 'Transfusion reaction work-up in blood bank'; and shared interesting case studies with the participants. In his welcome address Sharif Ramis Mahfooz, In-charge of blood related services at Sultan Qaboos Hospital Salalah, outlined the commitment of the Ministry of Health and all its departments in providing health facilities and services to all the citizens and residents in all the wilayats of Oman. "The idea behind the symposium is to enhance and develop the existing services as also to accomplish high international standards in the field. Through the symposium we want to share our policy expectations with our staff in order to reach a high degree of improvement," he said. Commenting on capacity, availability and demand and supply of blood in Salalah, Sharif said, "We have a capacity of 300-400 units in which we try to maintain a stock of 200 units. To ensure constant supply we organise at least one blood camp every week and thus we collect around 5000 unite every year.
"Khareef is the time when demand for blood is the highest in Salalah due to so many visitors and various kinds of accidents happening on roads," he said. An interesting presentation was made by Tariq Ahmed Muflah, Lab Technician at Blood Bank. He dealt with blood transfusion and its types and explained all possible steps from selection of suitable blood to transfuse to compatibility blood, blood transfusions reaction, and suggested ways in the event of reaction during blood transfusion. "The blood transfusion procedure usually takes 1-4 hours depending on how much blood you need to transfuse to the patient. It can be a life saving step and provides great clinical benefits to many patients, but it is not without any problems or risks therefore we have to be careful while dealing with it. Blood transfusions are very common. Most of transfusions go well but mild complications can occur which is very rare and might develop a serious problem to patient," he said.
To ensure safe transfusion he suggested to be sure that the patient details are matching with the blood that is going to be transfused. This assures that the blood is given to the correct patient. "Symptoms or signs of reaction may occur after only 5-10 ml of transfusion of incompatible blood so patients should be observed closely at the start of each blood unit transfused," he said. Other presentations were made by Dr Yousry Mansy Mohammed on 'Use of blood products in neonatal ICU'; Captain Salim al Alawi on 'Haymolytic disease in newborn';Dr Sabria Nasser Khalfan al Hashami on 'Principles of compability testing'; Mujtaba Ali Allawati on 'universal red blood cells'; Dr Ahmed Elkashef on 'Approriate use of blood and blood components'; and Dr A Saifudeen on 'Role of aphresis in clinical medicine'.
© Oman Daily Observer 2013
