Prevalence of Blood Transfusions
Mean preoperative hematocrit was 40 ± 4.5% and 41 ± 4.7%, and mean intraoperative hematocrit was 29 ± 5.1% and 29 ± 4.7% (group A and B). Total blood transfusion decreased from an average of 24% to 6.5%, intraoperative transfusion from 10% to 1.2%, and postoperative transfusion from 19% to 5.3% (groups A and B) (p< 0.0001 for all [Table 3]).
Adoption of quick re-exploration for bleeding did not increase overall rate of return to the operating room (4 patients [1.1%] group A and 3 patients [0.9%] group B), but did lower the need for transfusions even in the subset of patients who were bleeding (all 3 patients [100%] in group A and only 1 patient [33%] in group B).
In group A, 41 (11%) patients received blood products intraoperatively, and of these, 6 (15%) received only 1 unit, 6 (15%) received only fresh frozen plasma and/or platelets, and 8 (20%) received red blood cells (RBCs) in addition to other products. In addition, in group A, 73 (19%) patients received blood products postoperatively, and of these, 57 (78%) received RBCs, with 27 (47%) patients receiving only 1 unit. In group B, on the other hand, 4 (1.2%) patients received blood intraoperatively, all RBCs with 2 (50%) receiving only 1 unit. In group B, 18 (5.6%) patients received blood postoperatively, with 12 (67%) receiving RBCs, and of these, 6 (50%) received only 1 unit.