Accuracy of Blood Loss Estimation During caesarian delivery by Operating Room Staffs and Physicians of Dr Shariati Hospital in a Previously Designed Scenario and Effect of Education on This Estimation

Estimating intraoperative blood loss is an important task for fluid resuscitation of patients during operations. In this regard we conducted a prospective experimental study to evaluate the accuracy of visual estimation of blood loss during caesarian section by operating room staff and physicians and evaluate the effect of their personal experience and education on this estimation. Our secondary end point was the effect of education on this estimation. A clinical scenarios were reproduced in the form of 4 stations augmented with known volumes of expired packed cell on gaz, longaz, receiver and the earth surface. Fifty one staff estimated the blood loss visually and recorded their results, profession and experiments in two separate session before and one week after education. Recorded data were compared between two sessions. Of total 51 participants, 30(59%) were physician and 21(41%) were technician. Mean visual estimation of blood loss was 421.5±43.5 and 414.5±16.5 ml before and after education respectively (P=0.051, 95% CI).Mean difference between estimated blood loss and actual blood loss at first time was 76.5 ml and at second time was 106.4 ml respectively (P=0.001, CI 95%). Median percent error in estimated blood loss was not influenced by clinical experience, either before or after the didactic session. Blood loss tends to be overestimated both before and after didactic session (P> 0.050). Accuracy of visual blood loss estimation was not different between participants and also was not affected by clinical experience and profession either before or after the didactic session.