Analysis of red blood cell use in elective surgeries over 12 years in Korea.

Background: Red blood cell (RBC) transfusion is a lifesaving process for patients with perioperative bleeding, but transfusion can cause adverse events. Effective utilization and management of blood products as a limited resource is essential when considering cost-efficiency and patient safety.

Study Design And Methods: We analyzed the number of RBC units used during the hospitalization of patients who had undergone surgical procedures from 2002 to 2013 using National Health Insurance Service-National Sample Cohort data, which include a total of 487,238 cases for 206 selected operations.

Results: RBC units were used in 39,637 (8.1%) cases. A total of 60,815 RBC units were transfused with a mean of 0.13 units per patient overall and a mean of 1.53 units per case receiving RBC transfusion. In addition, 56.7% of the RBC units were transfused for females, and 60.1% of RBC units were transfused into patients aged 60 or older. RBC units were used most often in orthopedic surgeries (33.8%), followed by general surgeries (12.0%) and vascular surgeries (11.8%). The number of operations performed in the cohort increased from 27,690 in 2002 to 49,473 in 2013, and the mean number of RBC units used per operation also increased from 0.08 units in 2002 to 0.15 units in 2013.

Conclusion: Continuous management for blood preparation and transfusion is needed for efficient utilization of blood. Periodic investigation on the use of blood products through nationwide studies could suggest data applicable to blood product preparation for various elective surgical operations.