DISTRIBUTION OF ABO AND RH BLOOD GROUPS IN VOLUNTARY BLOOD DONORS AT A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL

Introduction: ABO and Rh blood group systems are the most important blood group systems and are genetically inherited. They play very vital role in blood transfusions, parental and genetic testing and addressing medico legal issues. This study was conducted to determine the distribution of ABO and Rh blood groups among voluntary blood donors in Mumbai, India. Objective: This study was conducted to determine the distribution of ABO and Rh blood groups among blood donors at tertiary care centre. Material And Methods: A retrospective data based study conducted at tertiary care centre over a period of 1 year from 1st January 2023 to 31st December 2023. ABO and Rh typing was done using tube agglutination method with antisera against ABO and Rh and they were further confirmed by reverse grouping method using known pooled Aand B cells. Result: Out of 6004 donors, 5149 (85.8%) were males and 855 (14.2%) were females. Majority of donors belonged to age group 26-40 years. The commonest ABO blood group among Rhesus positive donors was B (31.5%) followed by O (30.0%), A (25.5%) and AB (8.9%) while in with Rhesus negative donors was O (1.5%) followed by A(1.1%), B (1.1%) and AB (0.4%). Conclusion: The knowledge of distribution of blood group is essential for effective inventory management of blood bank and transfusion services. This study throws light on the reasons of deficiency of a particular group and to maintain registry of each blood group so that deficient group donors may be encouraged to donate more frequently and to make available particular group donor when required.