title: Blood transfusion practices in a tertiary care center in Northern India.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Blood transfusion plays vital roles in the medical and surgical practice. To achieve optimum use of blood, transfusion has to be appropriate and judicious consuming minimal resources and manpower.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the pattern of blood transfusion requests and utilization with the aim of determining transfusion practice.
  
  
  METHODS
  Blood request forms and cross-match worksheets at the blood bank were analyzed over a 6-month period. Numbers of requisitions, blood units cross-matched, issued out, transfused, and nontransfused were calculated. Nonusage probability (NUP) and the cross-match to transfusion ratio (CTR) for each clinical unit were computed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Two thousand two hundred and sixty-eight units of blood were cross-matched for 1487 patient's transfusion requests, out of which only 1455 (64.2%) were transfused giving a total CTR of 1.6 for the hospital. The CTR for the various clinical units were: Obstetrics and gynecology (O and G) 2.7, surgery 2.1, orthopedics 1.9, medicine 1.1, pediatrics 1, and oncology 1.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The overall CTR (1.6) of the hospital was within the optimal range except for the O and G and surgery department which were having very high NUP and CTR indicating their suboptimal transfusion practices. Introducing revised transfusion guidelines, maximum surgical blood ordering schedule and type, screen, save, and abbreviated cross-match method can help toward adequate requisition and utilization of blood thereby reducing wastage of resources, time, and manpower.
authors.affiliation: Department of Transfusion Medicine, Gian Sagar Medical College and Hospital, Patiala, Punjab, India.
authors.forename: Sonam
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kumari
keywords: Cross-match to transfusion ratio; Hospital Transfusion Committee; nonusage probability; request; utilization