Abstract
Background and Objectives
Transfusion is the most prevalent approach in surgery. Cardiac surgery is one of the most blood consuming operations. High transfusion trigger is indicative of inappropriate PRBC usage. Therefore, we decided to evaluate PRBC usage and transfusion triggers in cardiac surgery in a hospital in Kurdistan province.
 
Materials and Methods
In this descriptive study, files of all patients having undergone cardiac surgery during 1394 were studied. Information regarding preoperative Hb, transfusion trigger, units of transfused PRBC and related wards in which transfusion had been taken place was extracted. SPSS 16 Chicago, T-student and one way ANOVA, and χ² exams were respectively used for data analysis, the mean difference, and ratio comparison.
 
Results
Among 105 patients, 37 (35.2%) women and 68 (64.8%) men, with the mean age of 62 ± 10.7, 77 received at least one blood product. Meanwhile, 70 (66.6%) patients received PRBC in at least one stage of their postoperative hospitalization. Mean transfusion trigger was obtained to be  11.7 ± 1.9 (11.4  and 12.1 in women and men, respectively). Women generally showed  lower Hb levels (p = 0.025) , although this did not prove to be statistically significant in peri- operative PRBC transfusion rate. Mean PRBC usage in operating room, ICU and postoperative wards were 1.00 ± 1.22 , 1.26 ± 1.70, and 0.17 ± 0.52, respectively.
 
Conclusions 
The results revealed that the mean transfusion rates and triggers in our study are higher compared with similar studies. Serious revision in adopting appropriate transfusion triggers and managing transfusion cases is absolutely essential.