Blood transfusion in ICU: clinical practice and mortality factors

Ikhlas Mouayche1*, Naoufel Benradi1, Mina Elkhayari1, Abdelhamid Hachimi1, Amra Ziadi2,
Abdenasser M. Samkaoui2
Page No. 45-50

Objective: Evaluation of clinical practice, mortality and prognostic factors. Materials and
methods: This is a retrospective survey conducted in a polyvalent ICU during five years. We
collected 160 transfused patients during the study. Results: The average age in our study was
38±16.6 years with 67 % of males. Patients without medical history were 95% of cases. The
average SOFA score was 6.34±2.5.The hemorrhagic shock was the main reason for blood
transfusion in 72% of cases. Packed red cells were the most transfused in 77% of cases with an
average of 2.3±0.7 units/patient. The mean hemoglobin level was 8.3±1.6 g/dl before vs 10.3±1.6
g/dl post transfusion. The mean number of fresh frozen plasma and platelet was 5.27±1.22 and
4.4±1.3 units / patient, respectively. The mortality rate was 37%. Hyperthermia (OR: 5; IC95%:
1,19-20,91; p:0.02), coagulopathy (elongated aPTT (activated partial thromboplastin time)) (OR:
1.24; IC95%: 1,04-1,48; p:0.01) and decrease in creatinine clearance (OR: 1.1; IC95%: 1,01-1,10;
p:0.03) were independent factors of mortality. Conclusion: Our transfusional practice is rather
restrictive except for trauma brain injury and patients with heart or coronary diseases or chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease. Patients with hyperthermia or coagulopathy or renal failure have
poor prognosis.
Keywords : transfusion practice, blood transfusion, mortality, prognostic factors.