Women’s surgeries account for 60pc of blood transfusions

National

By OGIA MIAMEL
ON a national average, half of donated blood is used for maternity and women’s health and the rest by adults and children, Dr Mathias Sapuri says.
Sapuri, an obstetrician and gynaecologist at the Pacific International Hospital (PIH), when commenting on World Blood Donor yesterday, said that blood transfusion was an important part of any health care service in the world.
“Most of the blood that we collect for hospitals is used for women in maternity care,” Sapuri said.
“Almost 60 per cent of the blood is used by women for transfusion during delivery, ectopic pregnancy or blood loss during caesarean sections or gynaecological cancer surgeries.
“For a private hospital like PIH, from what our blood bank is telling us, 90 per cent of our blood products are used for women’s surgery and women’s obstetric complications,” Sapuri told The National.
He said the other 10 per cent was used for general surgery and other surgeries. At the Port Moresby General Hospital, 60 per cent of the blood was used for women’s care and 40 per cent in other areas of the hospital.
“You can see it’s a huge demand in the women’s medicine,including major cervical cancer surgery, ovarian surgery and other pelvic organs,” Sapuri said.
“Any major surgery that will require a lot of blood transfusion.
“Blood transfusion is not only about giving blood to replace blood, but also we giving products of the blood to replace any products that are missing in the body.
“You have red cell replacement, plasma, platelets replacement so there are a whole lot of products that come out of blood transfusion.”
He urged the public to donate blood to save lives as there was nothing wrong with giving blood.
“The blood you donate saves lives,” Sapuri said.
“One of those lives you save may be of someone close to you.”