Bayebaye, Caroline Tumelo2018-08-142018-08-142018https://hdl.handle.net/10539/25315A research report submitted to the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in the partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Medicine in the branch of Anaesthesiology, 2018Background Cardiac surgery is associated with perioperative bleeding which may result in the need for blood transfusion, particularly in paediatric congenital cardiac surgery performed on cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). Regular auditing of practices is imperative for improvements to be realised. Methods Retrospective, contextual, descriptive data of 105 patients were collected for the period January to December 2014. Results The median age of patients was 4 (1–6) years, weight 13 (8.4–20) kg, with mean lowest CPB haemoglobin of 8.3 (1.5) g/dL. There was a statistically significant difference in median red packed cells (RPC), platelet and cryoprecipitate units transfused per patient across Risk Adjusted classification for Congenital Heart Surgery categories (p=0.03, p=0.0013, p=0.0001). There was a statistically significant correlation between transfused fresh frozen plasma units with CPB time (r=0.2634, p=0.0199) and RPC units transfused (r=-0.4654, p<0.001). Conclusion Although no standardised transfusion guidelines were available, overall blood product transfusion was comparable to previous reports.enCardiac SurgeryCardiopulmonary BypassBlood TransfusionPediatricsThesis