Blood banking relies heavily on deferral policies for safety. Recognizing current academic themes can highlight research opportunities, encourage collaboration, ensure funding, understand audience interests, steer public sentiment, and inspire productive competition, thereby prompting impactful studies.

We analyzed 1034 blood deferral papers from Web of Science and Scopus, focusing on publication count, uniqueness, timeline, and themes like Men who have Sex with Men (MSM), HIV, COVID-19, anemia, and machine learning. We also assessed the global distribution of these studies to understand prevalence and associations with geography, demographics, and economic factors. Results and Conclusions: The study uncovered 1037 articles; MSM (107), HIV (234), Anemia (201), COVID-19 (40), and machine learning (59). Most papers were from the US, UK, Canada, reflecting their robust research capabilities. The US led in HIV and anemia studies, with India significantly contributing to anemia research. India led in COVID-19 studies, with substantial participation from the US. Machine learning research primarily came from the US and India, with significant Chinese contributions. The trending literature on blood deferral underscores the need to comprehend evolving blood banking dynamics. Machine learning, with its transformative capacity, is a prime research area. These insights could guide future studies and policymaking, maintaining blood safety.