Background: Prior to a blood transfusion, we should consider the risk benefit ratio. The literature shows that 18 to 57% of red blood cells, up to 96% of fresh frozen plasma and 26% of platelet concentrates are unnecessarily transfused. The goal of the present work is to know the appropriateness of transfusion at public and private health institutions supported by the Centro Nacional de la Transfusión Sanguínea.
Material and methods: An observational, retrospective, transverse and descriptive study was carried out by analyzing the requirements of blood products considering the patient's diagnosis, requested blood components, complete blood count, prothrombin and activated partial thromboplastin time. The therapeutic indication was considered either adequate or inadequate according to the guidelines for the transfusion therapy of blood products. Descriptive statistics for the analysis of the data were used.
Results: We analyzed 1,573 request forms received in year 2001. In 849 cases (55%) the indication was adequate, whereas in 724 (45%) the indication of the blood products was inadequate.
Conclusions: Our results show that overtransfusion is a common practice. We propose to follow the guidelines already established for the transfusion of blood components in order to avoid iatrogenia due to overtransfusion.