Proportion of Anemia in Patients Presenting for Elective Non Cardiac Surgeries in a Tertiary Hospital: A Retrospective Study

Introduction:  An independent correlation exists between preoperative Anemia and increased perioperative morbidity and mortality, advocates diagnostic evaluation and early intervention. When left unaddressed, Anemia can increase the risk of postoperative complications such as myocardial infarction, stroke, cognitive dysfunction, as well as increased length of stay, mortality, duration of ventilator requirement and avoidable blood transfusions. Hence, patients with severe anemia should be reassessed and possibility of delaying the surgeries to be considered aiming to build up Iron stores, if the procedure tends to be elective.

Aims:

1. To know the proportion of anemic patients undergoing elective non cardiac surgeries.
2. To know the time of Haemoglobin assessment prior to elective surgeries.

Material and Methods: This is a cross sectional study conducted  in all elective, non cardiac major, intermediate and minor surgeries for a period of 1 month conducted in our  department.

Results and Conclusion: In this study, almost one third (33%) of the patients are found to be anemic pre operatively. The proportion is more in females (37%) as compared to males (29 %).

Only 22.8 % of patients had the Hb estimation done at the recommended 3 or more weeks from the surgery, and the proportion of Anemia among them was 40 %. Nearly 20 % of the Hb estimation was done within a day of surgery, with the proportion of Anemia being approximately 47 %.

Anemia being the most common preventable comorbidity /modifiable risk factor, it is recommended to check for it atleast 3 weeks in advance, which gives enough time prior to surgery for completing the evaluation and correcting it.

Early recognition of the problem and proactive interventions including the use of oral iron and parenteral iron therapy aiming to build up iron store can prevent avoidable transfusions and transfusion‑related problems.