Incidence of Anaemia and Blood Transfusion Practice in Neurosurgical and Neurotrauma Intensive Care Units at National Hospital of Sri Lanka

A prospective cross-sectional single centre clinical study was performed to determine the incidence of anaemia and blood transfusion practice in neurosurgical and neurotrauma intensive care units (ICU). All the adult patients who met the criteria and were admitted to the neurosurgical and neurotrauma ICUs of National Hospital of Sri Lanka from 15April to 14 June 2013 were included in the study. Out of the 100 patients in the study, 82% were anaemic on admission and 95% had anaemia at some point during ICU stay. The mean haemoglobin (Hb) level was less than10g/dl in 30% of patients. 47% of patients received blood transfusion in the ICU. Only 23.6% of the transfusion events met the standards for the transfusion trigger.