New Technic for Detection of Bacterial Contamination in a Blood Bank Using Plastic Equipment

Abstract

GROWTH of bacteria in blood during refrigerated storage is a problem in blood banks. Reports of reactions ranging from mild to fatal clinical manifestations after transfusion of contaminated blood have been published,1 2 3 4 5 6 with the consistent observation that transfusion is a potential hazard. Of all the complications of transfusion — incompatibility, allergic manifestation, air embolism or homologous serum jaundice — bacterial contamination is the most insidious and dangerous. Contamination is difficult to detect because the very procedure of sampling a container of blood for culture before transfusion creates the opportunity for contamination. Conventional glass bottles may paradoxically yield a negative culture . . .