Near miss errors in transfusion medicine: the experience of the G. Gaslini transfusion medicine service.

Background: The monitoring of near miss errors, in other words events that cannot be classified as substantial errors, but whose occurrence suggests that there is probably a critical point in a working procedure, can be useful in order to prevent these 'almost errors' from occurring again or to prevent them evolving into 'relevant errors'.

Study Design And Methods: The methods for picking up and studying near miss errors use widely tested systems that have recently also been applied to medicine. These systems are based on the process of identifying the risk through spontaneous notifications of events (incident reporting).

Plasma derivatives and strategies for reaching self-sufficiency in Liguria: the role of the Transfusion Medicine Service of the Gaslini Institute.

Background: Since 2002, Liguria has been part of the Interregional Agreement on Plasma Derivatives (AIP) stipulated among some Regions of north Italy with the aim of contributing to self-sufficiency of the interregional system through exchanges between the facilities lacking products and those with an excess. In Liguria , the management of plasma derivates is entrusted to the Regional Centre for Co-ordination and Compensation (CRCC) which, with strategies of compensation, tries to guarantee that the needs for plasma derivates are covered in the hospitals in its territory. The Services of Immunohaematology and Transfusion Medicine (SIMT) have a goal of increasing the production of plasma in order to participate actively in achieving regional self-sufficiency.

HCV infection in very-long-term survivors after cancer chemotherapy and bone marrow transplantation: a single-center experience.

The long-term evolution of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in oncologic and/or transplanted patients is still unknown. Patients treated for cancer are different from the general HCV-infected population because of the immunosuppression and the hepatotoxic treatments, which act as co-factors of liver damage. Recently it was observed that antimetabolites play a role in accelerating the process of hepatic fibrosis.