Abstract

 Background and Objectives

 Considering the increasing trend of blood use, one of the main issues in blood safety is appropriate blood administration encompassing the size of needle lumen, use of high- flow sets for transfusion, and blood warming.

 Materials and Methods

 In this descriptive study, 2713 hospitalized patients from two hospitals receiving blood and blood components were evaluated for blood administration.

 Results

 From 2713 recipients, 2386 (88%) recieved unwarmed blood, and 230(8.5%) warmed blood. Regarding the rest 97 (3.5%) no data were received. Out of the total number of recipients, 65(2.3%) recieved blood with high flow rate through needle and 2585 with low rate. Regarding the rest 64 no data were received. 1804 patients (66.9%) were transfused with number 18 needle, 464 (17.1%) with number 20, 119(4.3%) with number 22, 122(4.4%) with number 16, and a few (7.8%) with different needle numbers.

 Conclusions

 The needle sizes used for blood transfusion were appropriate. But high-flow sets for rapid transfusion and blood warming methods were inappropriate.

 Key words : Blood administration, Needle gauge, Blood components