The Use of Blood Products in Patients Undergoing Cardiac Surgery

Blood transfusion is a common procedure essential for the treatment of patients undergoing cardiac surgery. Inappropriate transfusions, however, not only incur needless healthcare costs, but increase unnecessary risks due to transfusion reactions and infectious and immunomodulative causes. Safe and appropriate patient care requires evaluated blood component prescription practices.

Practically all patients undergoing cardiac surgery in Finland have a blood product booking from the Finnish Red Cross Blood Service. This registry contains large volumes of transfusion-related information on all Finnish patients undergoing cardiac surgery in Finnish centers. Participating hospitals were scattered to all geographical areas in Finland and concentrated to the most populated regions.

Data on the blood product use, laboratory findings one month pre-operatively and 12 months post-operatively were available.

Finnish hospitals have been required to provide information on hospital visits for the Finnish National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health for healthcare planning purposes. We used in part the original data sent by hospitals to the Finnish Hospital Discharge Register (FHDR).