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 obstetric 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 recipients. Methods: A hospital based medical chart review of 384 patients who were transfused from June 2013 to November 2013 was carried out. Systematic random sampling method was used; data were collected using a structured 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 recipients (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 conditions (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 recipients presented with neoplasms, pregnancy and childbirth related conditions, infections and injuries.

Assessment of recipients’ characteristics, transfusion appropriateness, and utilization pattern of blood and blood products in Jimma Medical Center, Jimma, Ethiopia

“…This study also recorded that majority of recipients were from medical (48.2%) and surgical (22.4%) departments. Comparable results were reported in Kenya [ 60 ], Nigeria [ 23 ], Malawi (medical ward) [ 58 ], and Uganda (medical ward) [ 59 ], as most patients received transfusion therapy from medical and surgical wards. This could be due to high anemia prevalence, higher HIV and other infectious diseases burden, and surgical procedure hemorrhages resulting in the need for blood and blood product transfusions [ 60 ].…”

“…Much of the transfusion recipients in this study were found to be females (65%) and younger cohorts (mean ±SD age of 27.47 ±15.28 years; median age of 26) of different clinical departments. Subsequently, similar studies in sub-Saharan Africa countries reported comparable results: 69.1% in Nigeria [ 23 ], 62.3 in Zimbabwe [ 56 ], Uganda female to male ratio (F:M) of 1.3 [ 57 ], 57.7% in Malawi [ 58 ], 58% in sub-Saharan Africa hospital [ 59 ], 55.2% in Kenya [ 60 ]. The low median age in this study indicates the structural distribution of the general population in sub-Saharan Africa regions which is mainly characterized by a higher proportion of younger people, as opposed to the aging population in developed countries [ 56 ].…”

“…The low median age in this study indicates the structural distribution of the general population in sub-Saharan Africa regions which is mainly characterized by a higher proportion of younger people, as opposed to the aging population in developed countries [ 56 ]. Blood transfusion practice in this region is also higher because of the higher prevalence of malaria and its endemicity, higher prevalence of multifactorial severe anemia, pregnancy-related hemorrhages, and effects of some complicated labour during delivery [ 23 , 43 , 44 , 56 , 60 ].…”

“…The majority of patients (97%) in this study received whole blood contrary to the rare or no use of this component for transfusion in recent medical practices [ 38 , 65 ]. Anemic individuals can be treated effectively by transfusing concentrated red cells, as this product contains minimal plasma content [ 60 ]. This finding is higher than reports of Nigeria (71.6%) [ 23 ], National Referral Hospitals in sub-Saharan Africa (60.2%) [ 59 ], Kenya (60.2%) [ 60 ], and Zimbabwe (8.4%) [ 56 ] of use of whole blood component for transfusions.…”

“…Anemic individuals can be treated effectively by transfusing concentrated red cells, as this product contains minimal plasma content [ 60 ]. This finding is higher than reports of Nigeria (71.6%) [ 23 ], National Referral Hospitals in sub-Saharan Africa (60.2%) [ 59 ], Kenya (60.2%) [ 60 ], and Zimbabwe (8.4%) [ 56 ] of use of whole blood component for transfusions. WHO’s blood safety status survey 2006 [ 43 ] reported that 24/39 African countries reported use of more than 75% of whole blood transfusions, whereas the 2010 survey [ 44 ] indicated 60.3% of whole blood collections separated into components, and also 2016 Global Status Report on blood safety and availability recorded that whole blood transfusions in low-income countries by World Bank income group was 36.9–98.7% (median 85%) [ 66 ].…”