A Retrospective Analysis of Intraoperative Transfusions at a Tertiary Care Hospital: A Brief Report

Background and objectives: Intraoperative blood transfusion is a common medical intervention worldwide. Although mostly lifesaving when indicated, inappropriate administration of intraoperative can be potentially life-threatening. The aim of this study was to analyze the most common surgery/invasive procedures requiring intraoperative transfusion and to determine indications for intraoperative transfusion as well as the outcome of the patients after intraoperative transfusion. Methods: A retrospective review of the electronic database of medical records was done for surgical patients who received intraoperative transfusion from June 2019 to December 2019. Preoperative hemoglobin values, associated comorbidities, and physiological triggers including hypotension and tachycardia were recorded. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the data. Results: A total of 36 patients (age range: 9-80 years) were studied. Orthopedic surgeries (53%) were the most common surgeries that required intraoperative transfusion. Preoperative anemia (hemoglobin 10 g/dl) was the predominant reason for intraoperative transfusion. Type 2 diabetes mellitus (36.3%) was the most frequent comorbidity among the cases of intraoperative transfusion. Half the cases received two units of packed red blood cell (pRBC), while 39% of the cases received one unit of pRBC. The remaining 11.1% received more than two units of pRBC. Furthermore, 77.7% of the patients were discharged to home within a week, while 16.6% of the patients were discharged after a prolonged hospital stay ( one week). The remaining 5.5% died in the hospital within a week of the procedure/surgery. Conclusion: Transfusion practices vary among physicians, hospitals, and countries. The findings highlight that the hospital might be the most important determinant of the number of administered transfusions, with some adopting programs to reduce transfusions for elective surgery.