Scientific Journal of

  Abstract

 Background and Objectives

 Blood transfusion rate for coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) accounts for more than 10%

 of all blood consumption. Studies have showed that combination of blood conservation methods

 together with the multimodality programs can reduce blood transfusion during the cardiac

 surgery. The aim of this study was to perform an audit of blood transfusion, determine the

 predictors of transfusion in CABG operation, and compare the predicted and injeced rate of blood

 transfusion as a method of quality assurance.

 Materials and Methods

 In this prospective observational study, 105 consecutive patients at Jamaran Heart Hospital from September 2012 to January 2013 were included. They were undergoing isolated, primary CABG by a single surgical team. The team were following a multimodality blood conservation strategy

 Results

 The predicted and injected blood rates were 24.1% and 13.3%, respectively. (OR = 0.48, CI = 0.26-1.4). Only 2% of patients required 2 units of packed cell and nobody received more than 2

 units of blood. Low patient weight (p = 0.010) and female gender (p = 0.032) were determined as two significant predictors of blood consumption.

 Conclusions

 Multimodality blood conservation program can reduce blood transfusion in the CABG operation.

 Thus, in the current era open heart surgery without blood transfusion is possible.