The PROTON study: profiles of blood product transfusion recipients in the Netherlands

BA Borkent-Raven, MP Janssen, CL van der Poel, WP Schaasberg, Gouke Bonsel, BA (Ben) van Hout

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Abstract

Background Transfusion recipient data are needed for correct estimation of cost-effectiveness in terms of recipient outcomes after transfusion. Also, such data are essential for monitoring blood use, estimation of future blood use and benchmarking. Study Design and Methods A sample of 20 of 93 Dutch hospitals was selected. Datasets containing all blood product transfusions between 1996 and 2006 were extracted from hospital blood bank computer systems, containing transfusion date, blood product type and recipient characteristics such as gender, address, date of birth. The datasets were appended and matched to national hospitalization datasets including primary discharge diagnoses (ICD-9). Using these data, we estimated distributions of blood recipient characteristics in the Netherlands. Results The dataset contains information on 290 043 patients who received 2 405 012 blood products (1 720 075 RBC, 443 697 FFP, 241 240 PLT) from 1996 to 2006. This is 28% of total blood use in the Netherlands during this period. Comparable diagnosis and age distributions of all hospitalizations indicate included hospitals to be representative, per hospital category, for the Netherlands. Of all red blood cells (RBC), fresh-frozen plasma (FFP) and platelets (PLT), respectively 1 center dot 7%, 2 center dot 5% and 4 center dot 5% were transfused to neonates. Recipients of 65 years or older received 57 center dot 6% of RBC, 41 center dot 4% of FFP and 29 center dot 0% of PLT. Most of the blood products were transfused to patients with diseases of the circulary system (25 center dot 1%) or neoplasms (22 center dot 0%). Conclusion Transfusion data from a limited sample of hospitals can be used to estimate national distributions of blood recipient characteristics.
Original languageUndefined/Unknown
Pages (from-to)54-64
Number of pages11
JournalVox Sanguinis
Volume99
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2010

Research programs

  • EMC MGC-02-52-01-A

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