Utilization of blood in elective cholecystectomy

To evaluate Blood Ordering and Transfusion ratios for elective cholecystectomy. All patients who underwent elective cholocystectomy in Surgical Unit III, Civil Hospital, Karachi from December 2005 to November 2006 were included in this study. Blood units cross matched and units transfused intra-operative and post-operatively were recorded apart from patient demography and hepatitis profile. A total of 132 patients underwent elective open cholecystectomy during the study period. Total 181 blood units arranged, among these only nine units of blood were transfused. This means only only 4.9% of blood was utilized while 95.1% of blood was not utilized. Cross-match to transfusion ratio=20.11, Transfusion probability=6.8 and Transfusion index=0.06. For elective cholecystectomy, there is no need for routine cross matching of blood. However, one must confirm the availability of blood for Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C reactive patients, and for cases with recurrent acute cholecystitic attacks