title: Platelet usage trends in a tertiary care hospital - Could it be less and less expensive?
abstract: Major bleeding is a life threatening complication of severe thrombocytopenia. The aim of this study was to find out the indications and the threshold for platelet transfusions in the pediatric patients of our hospital throughout 1 year. Records of the hospital's blood bank and the files of the patients were retrospectively reviewed. One hundred and four patients, between ages 0-18 years received 378 platelet units. Pretransfusion platelet counts were found to be significantly lower in hematology-oncology groups compared to other clinics (p<0.05). Single donor apheresis was found to be the major source of platelets in hematology (80.8%, n=147) and oncology (86.5%, n=45) clinics. There is a tendency for using apheresis products without proven superiority compared to platelet concentrates in terms of efficacy. This practice can be abandoned by continuous education.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Hematology, Gazi University School of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey. draida@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Fatma Burcu
authors.initials: FB
authors.lastname: Belen
authors.forename: Arzu
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Okur
authors.forename: Ferit
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Kulali
authors.forename: Odul
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Egritas
authors.forename: Ulker
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Kocak
authors.forename: Zuhre
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Kaya
authors.forename: Nilgun
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Altuntas
authors.forename: Idil
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Yenicesu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006470:Hemorrhage / Q000097:blood / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D010976:Platelet Count; D017713:Platelet Transfusion; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013921:Thrombocytopenia / Q000097:blood / Q000150:complications / Q000628:therapy*