Consumption trend of blood and blood components in Zahedan teaching hospitals

Background and objectivesOrder for a large number of blood and blood components is a very common practice that leads to great reduction in blood supplies, lowers blood unit quality, increases the number of expired units, and imposes heavy cost on blood transfusion centers. To evaluate the most common indications for blood order and blood use, we studied Zahedan teaching hospitals to seek a standard pattern for blood transfusion in Zahedan province. Materials and MethodsThis is a cross sectional study on 2094 blood order forms in Zahedan teaching hospitals including blood banks. The data were collected through questionnairs attached to all blood order forms in Zahedan teaching hospitals from June to September 2007. Data were analyzed in SPSS 14 with the use of Chi square and T test. To calculate C/T ratio, the number of crossmatched units was divided by the number of transfused units. ResultsIn this study, 2094 blood order forms were evaluated. Out of the patients, 57.9% were male with the age average of 27.1. The average number of products ordered for every patient was 2.36 ± 1.89 units and the average number of transfused units was 1.97 ± 1.57. From all blood order forms, 38.3% (CI: 95% = 36.1-40.2) were not transfused. The highest rate of blood orders pertained to surgery emergency (14.2%), ICU (10.3%), general surgery (9.3%), pediatrics (8.6%), orthopedics (8%), and gynecology (6.7%). Packed cell was the product with the highest order rate of 73.4% in Zahedan teaching hospitals; however, out of this rate 44% remained untransfused. ConclusionsThe results of this study showed that the rate of non-transfused ordered blood components in Zahedan teaching hospitals is so high. Thus, we need a regional guideline for blood orders so that we would be able to reduce this rate. We should also reconsider the blood order processing and the blood utilization strategy.