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BLOOD ORDERING FOR HAEMATEMESIS
Author(s) -
Kohn Michael R.,
Rowlings Philip A.,
Ham John M.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
australian and new zealand journal of surgery
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.111
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1445-2197
pISSN - 0004-8682
DOI - 10.1111/j.1445-2197.1990.tb07383.x
Subject(s) - medicine , general surgery , intensive care medicine
The blood ordering practices for acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding were assessed in 162 consecutive patients presenting with haematemesis admitted via the Accident and Emergency Centre. The patients were classified according to their estimated blood loss and haemoglobin level at the time of admission, and the amounts of blood ordered and given in the next 24 h were determined. The crossmatch: transfusion (CT) ratio was very high in one group (14.9), although the overall ratio of 2.4 was acceptable. There were variations in the ordering pattern of different medical officers, possibly because of the absence of clear guidelines. From the data obtained, a set of guidelines for ordering blood in this clinical conditions was developed. It was estimated that if these guidelines had been used, there would have been a reduction of one‐third of all units crossmatched, and that the overall CT ratio would have been reduced to 1.6.