Blood transfusion and high-order cesarean delivery; Report from a developing country

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Blood loss in cesarean deliveries has already been established in previous researches but a detailed insight into the correlates has not been done. This study examined whether the number of previous Cesarean sections is related to the need for blood transfusion, and risk factors for blood transfusion. METHODS: A retrospective review of 239 females who had undergone two or more Cesarean sections during the time period of 2015-2018 was done. Data collected included type of surgery (elective or emergency), age, parity, body mass index, estimated blood loss, operating time, level of surgeon, presence or absence of adhesions and number of transfused packed cell volume. RESULTS: About 9.2% patients received blood transfusion with an estimated average blood loss of 618.18 ml. Patients with adhesions from previous surgery, presence of placenta previa, multiparity were significantly likely to receive blood transfusion. It was found that women with more than two caesarian sections had high proportion of blood transfusion as compared to women who had two caesarian sections. However non-significant difference was observed in numbers of caesarean sections with blood transfusion. CONCLUSION: Women undergoing Cesarean sections combined with any of the risk factors like increased body mass index, dense adhesions, uterine atony, hypertension and presence of placenta previa, were found to be at increased risk for a need for blood transfusions.