Research Article The Problem of Anaemia in Patients with Colorectal Cancer

Copyright © 2014 M. Khanbhai et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background. Surgical patients are often anaemic preoperatively subsequently requiring blood transfusion. The aim of this study was to assess the problem of anaemia and transfusion rates in patients undergoing surgery for colorectal cancer. Methods. Haemoglobin levels and transfusion requirements were assessed retrospectively in 199 sequential patients operated on for colorectal cancer. This was followed by prospective analysis of 147 patients to correlate preoperative anaemia, stage of bowel cancer, and operation performed with rates of blood transfusion and length of hospital stay. Results. Preoperatively 44 % patients were anaemic retrospectively and 60 % prospectively. Anaemia increased the risk of transfusion in both studies (69 % anaemic versus 31 % nonanaemic