Korean J Blood Transfus.  2024 Apr;35(1):33-43. 10.17945/kjbt.2024.35.1.3 3.

Evaluation of the Appropriateness of Platelet Transfusions at Two Tertiary Hospitals

• Oh YB
• Lim HJ
• Kwon YJ
• Choi YJ
• Park JH
• Choi HJ
• Choi HW
• Kee SJ
• Nah EH
• Shin MG
• Shin JH

• KMID: 2555557
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.17945/kjbt.2024.35.1.3 3

Abstract

Background
Appropriate platelet transfusion is essential for patient blood management and allocating limited healthcare resources. Therefore, this study evaluated the appropriateness of platelet transfusion in two tertiary hospitals.
Methods
At Chonnam National University Hospital (Hospital A) and Chonnam National University Hwasun Hospital (Hospital B), 1,470 platelet transfusions (299 and 1,171 cases at Hospitals A and B, respectively) during a single month were reviewed retrospectively using the Korean Transfusion Guidelines (5th edition).
Results
The most common indications were therapeutic transfusion to ensure hemostasis (54.8%) at Hospital A and to prevent spontaneous bleeding in patients with hematologic/oncologic diseases (65.8%) at Hospital B. Overall, 87.3% and 76.3% of transfusions were appropriate at Hospitals A and B, respectively. According to the different transfusion indications, the therapeutic transfusions were appropriate in more than 80% of cases in both hospitals. The appropriateness of prophylactic transfusions against spontaneous bleeding was 80.7% and 69.3%, respectively, and those before surgery or invasive procedures were 72.0% and 66.2%, respectively. Of the 38 and 278 inappropriate transfusions in Hospitals A and B, respectively (as determined by pre-transfusion platelet counts), most cases had platelet counts between 50 and 100×10⁹ /L in Hospital A (23 cases) and between 20 and 50×10⁹ /L in Hospital B (198 cases).
Conclusion
The two hospitals differed in terms of transfusion indications, appropriateness, and cases of inappropriateness. The indications and appropriateness of platelet transfusion should be reviewed in real practice on a hospital-by-hospital basis to improve transfusion management.

Keyword

Platelet; Transfusion; Appropriateness