Prevalence of Pre-Operative Anaemia and Associated Blood Transfusion in Surgical Patients at the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital

Background: In sub-Saharan Africa, a good number of pre-operative patients are anaemic because of multiple factors such as infection, poor nutrition, and co-morbidities. For these reasons to optimize these patients prior to surgery there may be a need for blood transfusion considering the benefit against the risk. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of pre-operative anaemia and associated blood transfusion in surgical patients at the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital (RSUTH).

Methodology: This was a six-month retrospective study of pre-operative patients at the Surgery and Obstetrics/Gynaecology department of the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital (RSUTH). The cut-off used for anaemia was Packed Cell Volume (PCV) <33%. Information was extracted from patient’s case notes and analysed using SPSS version 25.

Result: The subjects for the study were 370, comprising 146 (39.5%) males and 224 (60.5%) females. The mean age was 31 years of which 194 (52%) were obstetrics and gynecological surgeries while 176 (47.6%) were non-gynecological surgeries. The commonest indication for surgery was cesarean section representing 126 (34.1%) of the subjects: 272 (73.5%) of the subjects had anaemia; 184 (67.9%) women had anaemia while 88 (32.1%) of the men were anaemic. Forty (10.8%) of the subjects required blood transfusion.

Conclusion: The prevalence of anaemia and blood transfusion was 73.6% and 10.8% respectively. Anaemia was highest amongst the gynecological patients. Surgical patients should be optimized prior to surgery, and blood transfusion can be considered where other options are infeasible to achieve patient optimization.