PRE- DONATION DEFERRAL Vol 39 No. 3 May 2008 571 Correspondence: Dr Rapiaah Mustaffa, Department of Hematology, School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 16150, Kubang Kerian, Kelantan, Malaysia. Tel: +6097664975; +60129667227 E-mail: rapiaah@kb.usm.my INTRODUCTION The Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM) is a teaching and referral hospital lo- cated on the east coast of Malaysia. The Transfusion Medicine Unit at the Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia depends on volun- tary blood donors. Careful donor selection contributes vitally to the safety of both the blood donor and recipient. Donor selection is based on a medical history and limited physi- cal examination to ensure the safety of both the donor and the recipient. A number of do- nors are deferred or rejected each year due to different reasons (Mollison et al, 1993; Ri- chard, 1993). Pre-donation screening includes three major components, these are registra- tion, counseling and physical examination. Counseling and physical examination are done by trained medical personnel. Registration of blood donors includes demographic data in addition to a self deferral questionnaire. Dur- ing counseling a set of criteria for donor se- lection is followed (Table 1). After counseling, a physical examination is carried out which includes general appearance, body weight, pulse rate, blood pressure, and hemoglobin levels. Abnormalities, such as skin rashes, needle marks; pallor, and jaundice are looked for. All donors have to give consent before donation according to national guidelines (Yasmin et al, 2005). The objectives of this study were to identify the number and causes for deferral of blood donors at the Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM) with an ulti- mate aim to create awareness among the transfusion medicine personnel about the causes of deferral and the preventive mea- sures to be taken. BLOOD PRE-DONATION DEFERRALS – A TEACHING HOSPITAL EXPERIENCE Y Rabeya 1 , M Rapiaah 2 , H Rosline 2 , SA Ahmed 2 , WA Zaidah 2 and TM Roshan 2 1 Transfusion Medicine Unit, Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia; 2 Department of Hematology, School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kubang Kerian, Kelantan, Malaysia Abstract. Blood donor selection contributes to the safety of both the donor and the recipient. The objective of this study was to identify the number and causes of blood pre-donation defer- rals at the Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM). A retrospective study was carried out to retrieve data regarding deferred blood donors at the HUSM in the year 2006. A total of 4,138 blood donors donated blood at the Transfusion Medicine Unit, of whom 231 were deferred or rejected as donors. The percentage of deferred donors was 5.6%. The main reason for defer- ral was a low hemoglobin (40.7%), with females constituting the majority of those deferred. This was followed by high blood pressure (29.4%) and male donors were predominant in this group. Medical illness caused 15.6% of donor deferrals. The majority of deferred donors were regular donors (64.1%). We recommend setting new hemoglobin criteria for donor deferral according to the reference range obtained for the particular population. Most of the other deferrals were preventable by proper health care education and awareness.