The essence of donor haemovigilance is the recognition, management and prevention of donor adverse events. It is essential that blood collection staff are trained to promptly recognize donor reactions and to take immediate action to prevent progression of symptoms and to treat the donor.
Standardized definitions
Consistent application of adverse event definitions is essential to the practice of vigilance in any domain. The ISBT, the International Haemovigilance Network (IHN), the Association for the Advancement of Blood and Biotherapies (AABB), and other groups have collaborated to develop and validate consensus definitions for blood donor reactions, adverse transfusion reactions, donor and patient reaction severity and imputability. Haemovigilance systems should begin by using these defined and tested definitions.
