Efficiency of Blood Utilization in Elective Oncosurgeries in a Tertiary Care Cancer Centre: A Case for Data Disaggregation

Oncosurgeries based on radical resection significantly increase the chances of intraoperative blood transfusion which leads to blood requisition based on subjective anticipation. Periodic audit and revisiting practice based on disaggregating data on the basis of surgical region could preserve blood, which is a scarce resource globally. This report proposes to use the results for reviewing the existing blood ordering schedule, in addition to proposing wider adoption in other cancer institutes using this report as a template. A retrospective analysis was performed for the entire patient cohort who underwent elective oncosurgeries between January 1, 2020, and January 31, 2021, and for whom blood reservation was done. Number of blood units cross matched and transfused for each patient for each surgery was noted. Efficiency of blood utilization was calculated using cross match transfusion ratio (CTR), transfusion probability (TP), and transfusion index (TI) indices and, finally, maximum surgical blood order schedule (MSBOS) was computed. Out of 718 elective oncosurgeries performed, blood requisition of 710 units was made for 345 procedures. Of the total units cross matched, only 76 units (10.70%) were transfused, leaving 89.29% units unutilized. Overall, CTR, TP, and TI were 9.34, 11.59%, and 0.22, respectively. Head and neck surgeries had the highest number of patients cross matched as well as units reserved, but not transfused. Conversely, abdominal surgeries had the highest transfusion probability. There is inefficient blood utilization in elective oncosurgeries and we recommend implementation of MSBOS based on anatomic region to improve efficiency of blood utilization.