Demographic and clinical profiles of blood transfusion recipients at a teaching and referral Hospital in Kenya

Abstract

Background: Blood transfusion is an essential component of modern health care. It is required universally to manage various medical, surgical and obste- tric conditions. Establishing the profiles of blood recipients would help in predicting the long term needs of blood transfusion as changing patterns of populations, diseases and health care will result in changing demands for blood and blood components. The objective of the study was to determine the pattern of blood use in terms of demographic and clinical profiles of the reci- pients. Methods: A hospital based medical chart review of 384 patients who were transfused from June 2013 to November 2013 was carried out. Syste- matic random sampling method was used; data were collected using a struc- tured data collection form and was analyzed using frequency tables. Results: The median age of the recipients was 31.5 years (IQR 13, 45.8) and the range was 0 to 89 years. Females comprised 55.2% of the recipients, of which 57.7% were in the reproductive age group (15 - 49 years). The majority of the reci- pients (60%) were from surgical and medical wards. The main indication of the transfusion was anaemia (62.8%) and most of the transfused patients were being treated for neoplasms (23.2%), pregnancy and childbirth related condi- tions (11.7%), injuries (11.5%) and infections (11.4%). Conclusion: Majority of the transfused patients were relatively young and were females. Anemia was the main indication of the transfusion and most of the transfused reci- pients presented with neoplasms, pregnancy and childbirth related condi- tions, infections and injuries.