Blood transfusion activity in a general hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Vox Sang
; 116(5): 574-580, 2021 May.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1241035
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
The COVID-19 outbreak has affected almost all hospital departments, including transfusion services. However, the demand for transfusions in a general hospital designated to deal with COVID-19 patients has not been analysed before. STUDY DESIGN ANDMETHODS:
A retrospective study was conducted to evaluate blood transfusion practices from 15 March to 14 April 2020 at Hospital Universitario Infanta Leonor (Madrid, Spain). During this month, with few exceptions, the hospital became a 'COVID-19' centre. In addition, transfusion rates during this time frame and the same period over the last 4 years were compared.RESULTS:
From 15 March to 14 April 2020, only 254 blood components were transfused, resulting in a 49·3% reduction over the previous year. Interestingly, in critically ill patients, the red blood cell (RBC) transfusion/bed ratio significantly decreased during this period (0·92) compared to the same ratio over the past 4 years (2·70) (P = 0·02). Of note, 106 blood components (95 RBC; 11 platelet concentrates) were transfused to only 36 out of 1348 COVID-19 patients (2·7%). The main reason for RBC transfusion in COVID-19 patients was a previous underlying disease (44%) followed by bleeding (25%) and inflammatory anaemia (25%).CONCLUSION:
This is the first study to report a decrease in blood transfusions during the COVID-19 pandemic in a general hospital and especially in the intensive care unit. The results of this study suggest that COVID-19 does not generally induce transfusion requiring anaemia, being the main causes for transfusion in these patients underlying conditions or bleeding.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Blood Transfusion
/
COVID-19
/
Hospitals, General
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
Europa
Language:
English
Journal:
Vox Sang
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Vox.13024
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