The undesirable effects and infectious risks linked to blood transfusion in pediatric emergencies of the mother and child hospital center (Chu-me) of N’djaména

Introduction: blood transfusion is not a trivial act because it is a transmission route for many germs and adverse effects can occur. Objectives: Our study aimed to contribute to improving the quality of blood transfusion in the pediatric emergency department of the University Hospital Center for Mother and Child. Material and Methods: This was a prospective, cross-sectional and descriptive study carried out in the pediatric emergencies of the CHU-ME and the CNTS from March 2020 to August 2020, i.e. a period of six (6) months. It concerned all patients admitted to pediatric emergencies aged two (2) months to fifteen (15) years during the study period. Our inclusion criteria were: being between 2 months and 15 years old; having been transfused with whole blood or one of the blood derivatives during the study period; not present a positive reaction to the search for the main markers of ITTS (HIV, HBV, VHV and Syphilis). Parental consent was obtained prior to inclusion. The data collected on the pre-established collection sheet were entered into the SPSS20 and Excel databases then used and analyzed with the same software. Results: During the study period, 2822 children were admitted, of whom 127 were included, 49 of whom were followed up to three months and benefited from post-transfusion marker monitoring. Infants received the most transfusions (51.2%); the M/F sex ratio was 1.01. History of transfusion was noted in 37% of children. The main reason for transfusion was severe post-malarial anemia (46.5%). The pre-transfusion hemoglobin level ≤ 5g/dl was noted in 45.7% of patients. Whole blood was exclusive (100%) in our series. The ultimate bedside compatibility test was performed in only 10% of transfused patients. The majority of patients were transfused in August (47.2%). Adverse effects were observed in 38 patients (29.9%). 5% of died during their hospital stay against 14% after their discharge. No case of seroconversion was noted during post-transfusion serological controls. Conclusion: This study conducted in the pediatric emergency room on blood transfusion did not find any case of residual transfusion infection. However, the assessment of transfusion safety remains uncertain requires other complementary studies if necessary multicentric.