Pattern of Blood Component Request and Utilization in a Tertiary Hospital in Nigeria

Background: Blood transfusion being a life-saving procedure plays a vital role in the management of patients in the clinical practice. The challenges of inadequate voluntary blood donors and poor storage facilities made availability of sufficient safe blood difficult in developing countries. All efforts should therefore be put in place to ensure judicious use of the available blood by separating each unit of blood donated into components and giving individual patient only the required blood component rather than giving whole blood. Aim: This study was conducted to look into the pattern of blood components request and utilization in a tertiary hospital in Nigeria to assess its effectiveness in reducing blood wastage. Materials and Methods: This is a hospital-based retrospective study. Blood Bank registers for blood component request and utilization were analyzed over a period of 20 months. Units of blood products requested and units used were considered during this period with emphasis on request to transfusion ratio. Results: Highest blood product request was from pediatrics ward. Total blood product request for male was higher than for female. Highest blood product request was packed cell with request to transfusion ratio of 1.01, followed by fresh-frozen plasma, request to transfusion ratio 1.0 and platelet, request to transfusion ratio 1.14. Conclusion: Appropriate blood product request maximizes utilization, minimizes wastage, thereby increasing efficiency of the blood bank staff by reducing the unnecessary workload of cross matching, issuing of blood and wastage of reagents.