title: Pre-operative autologous blood donations. A five-year experience in Trinidad and Tobago.
abstract: A pre-operative autologous blood donation programme was started in 1988 and made available to all doctors offering elective surgical procedures. Two hundred and seventy-seven (277) patients presented for autologous donation over a five-year period. Nine point four per cent were rejected because of low haemoglobin ( < 10.5 g/dl). The single biggest user of the programme was the Princess Elizabeth Hospital for handicapped persons. Patients undergoing orthopaedic procedures gave 50% of the donations, and ranged in age from 10 to 73 years. The oldest donor was a 73-year-old man who had an abdominal aortic aneurysm replaced. Gynaecological surgeons in the public and private sectors together provided 43.9% of donors, 3.6% of these underwent elective Caesarean Section, each donating one unit of blood at 36 weeks. Patients undergoing general surgical procedures comprised 10.4% of donors. Autologous donors contributed 1.3% of the total number of donations over this period.
authors.affiliation: National Blood Transfusion Service, General Hospital, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Charles
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Toby
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Aleong
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lera
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Gomez-Adams
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jones-Lecointe
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001782:Blood Donors; D001804:Blood Transfusion, Autologous; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011300:Preoperative Care; D014300:Trinidad and Tobago