Hospital halves use of blood transfusion in hip surgery

A hospital that introduced a stringent transfusion policy has substantially reduced the amount of blood it uses.

The proportion of patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft who received a transfusion fell from 57% to 45% and of patients undergoing hip replacement from 52% to 26%, with no increase in length of stay in hospital, according to a report of an audit of the use of blood after the introduction of the policy at the South Manchester University Hospital (J …