Abstract

 Background and Objectives

 Umbilical cord blood has been used successfully as a source of hematopoietic stem cells for transplantation. Knowing that cord blood could be bacterially contaminated at the time it is being obtained and afterwards during the time it is being processed, we decided to perform the present study to determine any possible bacterial contamination and find out the root causes in Royan Cord Blood Bank (RCBB).

 Materials and Methods

 RCBB during 3 years received 3074 cord blood units (CBUs) upon which relevant investigation was made. In order to determine the root cause of the bacterial contamination, 800 CBUs were tested out of each of which two samples were taken. The data were analyzed with Chi-square by SPSS 16.

 Results

 Out of 3074 CBUs, 93 units (3.02%, CI 95%=2.3-3.6) were shown to have bacterial contamination. Out of the 800 units tested to detect the root cause, 26 samples (3.3%) were proved to be bacterial culture positive out of which 25 (96.2%) were shown to be contaminated at the time they were obtained and 1 (3.8%) during processing. The isolated bacteria were aerobic in 19 cases (73.1%) and anaerobic in 7 (26.9%).

 Conclusions

 The results show that bacterial contamination mostly is caused at the time blood is obtained from the cord in hospital obstetrics wards and most of the isolated bacteria were shown to be skin flora. Given the high value of cord blood stem cells and the risk of septic transplantation, it is necessary to prepare training programs for midwives and phlebotomists.

  Key words : Blood Banks, Cryopreservation, Umbilical Cord Blood