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Autologous blood donations and transfusions among patients undergoing elective orthopaedic, gynaecologic and elective caesarean section at a Tertiary Hospital in North Central Nigeria
Abstract
Materials and methods: this is a cross sectional survey of knowledge and acceptance of ABDT by patients scheduled for elective orthopaedic, gynaecologic and elective caesarean section surgeries using structured interviewer administered questionnaire on socio-demographics, clinical presentations, knowledge of blood donations and transfusions, and acceptance of ABDT. The study population comprised of 171 subjects.
Results: Gynaecologic/obstetric patients were 120 (70.2%) while 51 (29.8%) of the subjects were Orthopaedic patients. Majority (43.95%) were within the age range 31-45 years, 38.6% were less than 31 years while 17.5% were older than 45 years. Females constituted the larger proportion (77.2%). Twenty one (12.3%) subjects had donated blood in the past, 45 (26.3%) had previous blood transfusions and 30 (17.5%) had knowledge of ABDT. Eight one (47.4%) of all subjects accepted ABDT for the scheduled surgeries while 123 (71.9%) subjects accepted to be voluntary blood donors after surgery. Pre-deposit is the commonest form of ABDT preferred by the subjects (66%), followed by Haemodilution (28%) and Cell salvage (6%). A significant number of the subjects who accepted ABDT were ready to become voluntary blood donors after surgery (90.1%).
Conclusion: Acceptance rate as high as 47.4% was recorded in this study despite low awareness. This is higher than what was reported by most authors’ locally but similar to the findings from Europe and Asia. Pre-deposit form was the commonest ABDT acceptable to these patients. Improving awareness on ABDT will boost voluntary blood donations and improve blood transfusion safety.