Blood Requests and Utilization in Elective Surgical Patients in a Nigerian Teaching Hospital

Abstract

Abstract Introduction/Objective Although requesting for blood is a very common practice for patients for surgical interventions, the average requirement for a particular procedure is usually based on subjective anticipation of blood loss rather than on evidence based estimates. Over-ordering of blood components results in wasting of technical time, reagents and imposes extra cost on patients. The objective of this study is to assess blood ordering and utilization in a Nigerian Tertiary Hospital. Methods A review of one year data collected from the records of all discharged surgical patients and blood bank registers was done. Blood utilization was calculated using crossmatch to transfusion ratio (C/T), transfusion probability (%T), and transfusion index (TI). Results A crossmatch request for 1,228 units for 569 patients was made. Requests was higher for gynaecological cases (24.8 %) followed by orthopaedic procedures and least for cardiothoracic and urological surgeries (1.4 % each). Out of the crossmatched units, 880 units was transfused for 373 patients. The overall of C/T, %T, and TI were 1.4, 65.6%, and 1.55 respectively. The highest C/T was observed in elective caesarean sections (2.25) and neurosurgeries (2.2) while the lowest C/T was observed in oral maxillofacial surgeries (1.09) Conclusion Unnecessary crossmatching with minimal transfusion practice was observed in many elective surgical cases. Blood request pattern for elective surgeries needs to be revised and unnecessary requests minimized. There is a need for a Hospital blood transfusion committee which should come up with blood request policies and transfusion guidelines for elective surgical procedures and also conduct regular blood transfusion service audits.