• Transfusion medicine · Aug 2008

    Transfusion trigger--how precise are we? Intraoperative blood transfusion practices in a tertiary centre in Nigeria.

    • I Desalu, O I O Dada, R A Ahmed, O O Akin-Williams, H A Ogun, and O T Kushimo.
    • Department of Anaesthesia, Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Lagos, Nigeria.
    • Transfus Med. 2008 Aug 1;18(4):211-5.

    SummaryTo determine how well anaesthetists in Nigeria determine the need for transfusion based solely on physiological variables and estimated blood loss. To determine the incidence of inappropriate blood transfusion. Anaesthetists in our hospital determine when to transfuse patients based solely on clinical acumen. This may result in inappropriate transfusion especially in this subregion where blood donors are scarce and risk of transmission of infection high. All surgical patients requiring blood transfusion were prospectively studied over 3 months. Transfusion was based solely on the discretion of the attending anaesthetist. Haemoglobin (Hb) concentration was measured prior to transfusion and 24 h postoperatively. Appropriate transfusion was defined as blood transfusion at Hb < 8 g dL(-1) or 10 g dL(-1) in the elderly and those with medical comorbidities. The trigger for transfusion was documented as well as estimated blood loss. Thirty-four patients were studied. The mean pretransfusion Hb was 8.09 +/- 2.45 g dL(-1) (range 4.6-14.2). Twenty-one patients (61.8%) had appropriate blood transfusion. The commonest transfusion triggers were clinical pallor (82.4%), excessive blood loss (76.4%), delayed capillary refill (55.9%) and severe hypotension (50%). The use of near patient monitoring devices might further improve blood transfusion practice in this setting where donor blood is scarce.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…

What will the 'Medical Journal of You' look like?

Start your free 21 day trial now.

We guarantee your privacy. Your email address will not be shared.