U.S. Blood Transfusions Up 140 Percent

Washington, D.C. (AHN) – Blood transfusions in the United States doubled since 1997, according to the latest News and Numbers statistics from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Blood transfusions are necessary for different reasons, including when a person has a sudden loss of blood because of an injury, has a low red blood cell count before, during or after surgery, cancer or has moderate to severe anemia, the agency explained in a statement.

The federal agency found that the number of blood transfusions increased from from 1.1 million to nearly 2.7 million from 1997 to 2007. This 140 percent increase in blood transfusions was the largest jump, not related to pregnancy or childbirth, that the federal agency said it had recorded for a similar time period.

Some of the procedures that contributed to the increase in blood transfusions were:

* Knee surgeries – up 86 percent increase, from 329, 000 to 611,000 stays.
* Hemodialysis for people with poor kidney functioning or end-stage renal disease – up 66 percent, from 473,000 stays to 786,000 stays.
* Respiratory intubation and mechanical ventilation for people with respiratory failure – up 48 percent, from 919,000 stays to 1.4 million stays.
* Percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA), a procedure to open blocked arteries in the heart – up 24 percent, from 581,000 stays to 722,000 stays.