Abstract
Blood transfusion requirement in shoulder surgery has been reported from 8.1% to up to 15%. Our observation was that blood transfusion rarely required after open shoulder surgery. We therefore decided to conduct a retrospective case notes study to look at the crossmatch-transfusion ratio for shoulder surgery.
A total of 211 patients were included in the study. Results were analysed using paired T-test from SPSS (15.0). There were 63 elective procedures and 148 trauma procedures during that period. Ten patients (4.8%) required intra-operative or post operative transfusion. Crossmatch-transfuison ratio was 21.
There should be a clear equation between crossmatch and its use, intra-operatively and post operatively. This study highlighted unnecessary cross-matching for shoulder operations which puts extra pressure on the laboratory staff, the blood bank and also has financial implications.
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