Abstract:
Background - Preoperative autologous blood donation
(PABD) is utilized to circumvent the use of
allogenic blood for various reasons.
Objective - To describe the distribution in terms
of demographic characteristic, trends in participation
and result of screening test of the PABD programme
of the Accra Area Blood Center from
1993-2003.
Design and Setting Retrospective descriptive
study of PABD in patients scheduled for a variety
of elective surgical procedures.
Setting- Different levels of institutional health
care in Accra, Ghana.
Methods Data from existing records of patients
who had participated in PABD were collated and
analyzed
Results Five hundred and forty six (546) females
and 89 males participated, with ages ranging between
14-74 years. Majority of the patients
(76.7%) underwent gynaecological surgery. A
total of 330 (52%) donated one unit only, and 299
(47.1%) donated two units. Majority of the patients
(56.4%) had the surgery at the Korle-Bu
Teaching Hospital (KBTH). Of the donations, 21
(3.3%), 1 (0.2%), 1 (0.3%) and nil were positive
for HBV, HIV I & II, HCV and VDRL respectively.
A total of 848 (89.4%) autologous crossmatched
units were issued out. There was a steady
progressive increase in participation.
Conclusion Mainly adult females scheduled for
gynaecological surgeries in KBTH participated,
while almost equal proportions donated one or two
units of blood which meets the blood needs of
most elective surgeries. Therefore healthy patients
going for elective surgeries in regions with limited
blood supply must be encouraged to enter a PABD
Programme. Further studies in this field should
evaluate motivational factors for participation