Incidence of Anaemia and Blood Transfusion Practice in Neurosurgical and Neurotrauma Intensive Care Units at National Hospital of Sri Lanka

Jane Sangeetha Benedict,Suganya Sabaretnam

doi:10.4038/slja.v29i2.8662

Abstract

A prospective cross-sectional single centre clinical study was performed to determine the incidence of anaemia and blood transfusion practice in neurosurgical and neurotrauma intensive care units (ICU). All the adult patients who met the criteria and were admitted to the neurosurgical and neurotrauma ICUs of National Hospital of Sri Lanka from 15th April to 14th June 2013 were included in the study. Out of the 100 patients in the study, 82% were anaemic on admission and 95% had anaemia at some point during ICU stay. The mean haemoglobin (Hb) level was less than10g/dl in 30% of patients. 47% of patients received blood transfusion in the ICU. Only 23.6% of the transfusion events met the standards for the transfusion trigger.

Highlights

Anaemia is a common problem among the patients admitted to intensive care units (ICU) and it is frequently treated with transfusion of packed red blood cells
The objectives were to find out the incidence of anaemia in patients in the neurocritical care unit and to assess the blood transfusion practices compared with the standards
Collected data included patient details, length of ICU stay, admission haemoglobin level, daily haemoglobin level, blood transfusion events, number of units of blood transfused in each transfusion event, pre transfusion haemoglobin level, post transfusion haemoglobin level, presence or absence of active bleeding during transfusion and whether or not the patient is in early resuscitation phase of sepsis during

Summary

Introduction

Anaemia is a common problem among the patients admitted to ICUs and it is frequently treated with transfusion of packed red blood cells. By reducing the oxygen supply to the tissues, anaemia increases the morbidity and mortality.[1]. Since critical illness significantly elevates metabolic demands, the consequences of anaemia might be aggravated in this population. In patients with ischemic heart disease (IHD), a positive correlation between anaemia and increased cardiac morbidity has been shown.[2] Anaemia could be a contributory factor for hypoxic secondary brain injury. In neuro critical care patients, anaemia has been identified as an independent risk factor for poor neurological outcome and increased mortality.[3]

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion