A retrospective study of transfusion practice: Blood crossmatch ordering in obstetrics

Background: Parturient undergoing elective cesarian delivery (CD) in a busy tertiary care referral hospital often requires blood transfusions. The preoperative ordering for blood crossmatch frequently overshoots the actual need of transfusion. Aims: The primary aim of this study was to audit the local blood ordering practice in obstetric anesthesia and compare with the international guidelines. Materials and Methods: A retrospective analysis of patients who underwent elective CD over a period of 6 months was done. The data collected included patients' age, pretransfusion hemoglobin, timing of transfusion, number of units crossmatched, and number of units transfused. The crossmatch transfusion ratio (CTR), transfusion probability, and transfusion index were calculated from the data. Results: A total of 425 patients underwent CD with mean age 33 (standard deviation 7). Seventy-seven (18%) of them were crossmatched with total 252 units. Thirty-one (7.3%) patients required transfusion and the number of units transfused was 79. CTR in our study was 3.2. Conclusion: CTR for elective CD is higher than the recommended international quality indicator value. There is a need to develop institutional specific blood ordering schedule to bring improvement in transfusion practices.