title: Blood ordering habits for elective surgery: time for change.
abstract: A prospective study was carried out for 6 months to determine the efficacy of blood ordering routines for elective surgery. It was found that only 23% of procedures needed preoperative crossmatching of blood (transfusion index 'TI' greater than 0.5). There was an excessive over-ordering of blood for 77% of the operations (crossmatch/transfusion ratio greater than 2.5). In addition, the transfusion index for the latter group showed that there was no need to prepare blood preoperatively (TI less than 0.5). A transfusion tariff is worked out which abandons crossmatching for the majority of procedures (cholecystectomy, thyroidectomy and surgery for duodenal ulcer excluding gastrectomy). Instead a 'group and screen' policy is suggested.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery Amiri Teaching Hospitals, Kuwait.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Juma
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Baraka
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abu-Lisan
authors.forename: S K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Asfar
mesh_terms: D001788:Blood Grouping and Crossmatching; D001803:Blood Transfusion / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006748:Hospital Departments / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007432:Intraoperative Period; D007730:Kuwait / Q000453:epidemiology; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011300:Preoperative Care / Q000379:methods; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013503:Surgery Department, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*