Demographic characteristics of blood and blood components transfusion recipients and pattern of blood utilization in a tertiary health institution in southern Nigeria.

Background: An insight into the utilization pattern helps in future planning of blood drive. This study was conducted to describe the demographic characteristics of the transfusion recipients and pattern of blood and blood product utilization in Nigeria.

Methods: Blood bank registers of University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH) Calabar were analysed for a 12 month period. Number of blood units requested, number of units issued, Cross-match to transfusion ratio (C/T), age, gender, blood group, blood components received, patients ward and clinical diagnosis were computed. Diagnoses were grouped into broad categories according to the disease headings of International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10).

Results: Majority of the 2336 transfusion recipients studied were females (69.09%) and are in the reproductive age group; 15-49 years (75.23%). The median age of the recipients was 35 years (range, 0-89). Most of the recipients (n = 1636; 70.04%) received whole blood transfusion. Majority (94.46%) of the cross-matched units were issued giving C/T ratio of 1.06. The common blood group type was O Rhesus positive (62.63%). Obstetrics and Gynecology had the highest blood requisition (41.40%). The majority of the patients were diagnosed with conditions related to pregnancy and childbirth (38.70%), conditions originating in prenatal period (14.38%). The age range of 25-54 years had the highest blood transfusion requests (n = 501; 51.07%), of these, females were majority (n = 390;77.84%).

Conclusions: Our study recorded mostly young patients who received mostly whole blood. Most of the patients in the reproductive age group received transfusion for pregnancy and child-birth related cases.