Blood utilization practices at a tertiary care hospital- A Retrospective study

Abstract

Aim: The aim of the study is to investigate the blood ordering pattern and transfusion practices thereby incorporating a blood ordering schedule which streamlines the use of blood and blood products for elective surgical procedures in future ,which can decrease the over ordering of blood. Materials & methods: This study was conducted for a period of one year from January 2016 to December 2016 in those patients, who were scheduled for elective surgical procedures in our Govt. Royapettah Hospital. Total number of units reserved and cross matched and units issued were estimated for the calculation of C/T Ratio, Transfusion probability and Transfusion Index . Results: During the study, the hospital blood bank was requested to prepare 6013 units of Red blood cells for 2756 patients who underwent elective procedures. Blood crossmatched and transfusion patterns for surgeries performed in various departments. The overall C/T Ratio was 10.5, Transfusion Index was 0.2 and Transfusion Probability was 15.1% among various departments. Distribution of patients among Orthopedic department had the highest number of patients [30.4%(838)] Distribution of C/T Ratio among dental department had highest C/T Ratio of 12.8 and neurosurgery had lowest C/T Ratio of 5 conclusion: Before the implementation of an evidence-based blood ordering schedule at our hospital, we observed that a lot of blood was reserved for elective surgeries which were not being utilized. This ends up in burdening the blood bank personnel and also wasting the resources. The results showed that the C/T ratio for elective surgeries were very high.