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Review of autologous blood transfusion at the Kenyatta National Hospital


G.O Afulo

Abstract

Objective: This study was performed over a three- month period to establish the pattern of autologous blood transfusion with specific focus on age, sex, type of surgery, duration of hospital stay and religious beliefs.
Design: Hospital based prospective study. Setting: The study was conducted at the Kenyatta National Hospital orthopaedic and general surgery wards. It involved in-patients who were admitted for elective surgeries.
Subjects: Sixty two patients were selected over a three-month period between October and December 2006 both months inclusive. Outcome mesures: The inclusion criteria involved all male and female patients aged between 16-65 years. The pre-operative haemogram level ranged between 11-18 gm% both inclusive. Exclusion criteria involved emergency surgeries, ages outside 16-65 years, haemogram level outside 11-18gm%, and chronic medical illnesses. The sample size referred to the number of patients recruited during the study period and met the study criteria. Statistical analysis was performed using the appropriate statistical methods. Results: Male: female ratio was 6:1. Age group was dominated by middle age group of 35-49 years. Religious distribution was Christians: non-christians in the ratio of 10:1. Surgeries performed were orthopaedics (78%) and non-orthopaedic cases( 22%). Duration of hospital stay ranged between 5-21 days.
Conclusion: Autologous blood transfusion is a common and safe mode of blood transfusion in surgery. It is more commonly practiced in orthopaedic surgery and needs to be encouraged among other surgical disciplines.

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eISSN: 1994-1072
print ISSN: 1994-1072