Prevalence of Rhesus negative blood group in surgical patients in a tertiary hospital in Rivers State, Nigeria

Abstract

Background: The Rhesus-D negative blood group is not as common in Africans when compared to Caucasians thus the need to optimize surgical patients prior to surgical procedures. Blood group “O” Rh-D negative blood is a universal donor hence its importance in emergency situations where there is no time to type and cross match blood.This is because surgical patients may need blood transfusion pre-operatively, intra-operatively or post-operatively. Aim: To determine the prevalence of rhesus negative blood group in surgical patients in the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital (RSUTH). Method: This was a one-year retrospective study of surgical patients (Surgery and Obstetrics/Gynaecology departments) of the RSUTH. The patients comprised of all the consecutive cases of the surgeries in these departments for the period under review. Ethical clearance was obtained from ethical committee of the Rivers State Hospital Management Board. Structured profoma was used to extract information from patients’ case notes and analyzed using SPSS version 25. Result: A total of 370 patients were attended to pre-operatively. There were 146 (39.5%) males and 224 (60.5%) females. The mean age was 31 years. The age range was 22 years to 56 years. One hundred and ninety four (52.4%) were obstetrics and gynaecological surgeries while 176 (47.6 %) were non-gynaecological surgeries. The commonest indication for surgery was caesarean representing 126 (34.1%) of the subject.The distribution of Rh-D positive blood and Rh-D negative blood were 337 (91.7%) and 33 (8.9%) respectively. The prevalence of Rh-D negative blood group was 33 (8.9%) with blood group O Rh-D negative as the commonest 15 (4.1%). Conclusion: Our showed the prevalence of Rh-D negative blood group in surgical patients at the Rivers State Teaching Hospital as 8.9%. Rhesus–D “O” negative blood group was the most common representing 4.1% of Rhesus D-negative blood group. This makes it important in emergency surgical practice as universal donor when there may be to time for typing and matching prior blood transfusion.