Hospital Blood Transfusions Have More Than Doubled Since 1993

AHRQ News and Numbers

Release Date: September 21, 2005

From 1993 to 2003, patients requiring at least one blood transfusion during their hospital stay increased from 829,000 cases to nearly 2 million cases, according to the Federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

• Transfusions are needed when patients are severely anemic or when they have lost blood due to injury or surgery.
• From 1993 to 2003, hospital admissions of patients found to have anemia increased from 2.4 million to 4.1 million. This includes:
  • Iron deficiency anemia.
  • Anemia associated with chronic illness such as kidney disease.
  • Other unspecified anemia.
• The number of patients with acute post-hemorrhagic anemia—severe blood loss that can occur with some types of injuries or surgeries—decreased from 829,000 cases in 1993 to 746,000 cases in 2003.

Internet Citation:

Hospital Blood Transfusions Have More Than Doubled Since 1993. AHRQ News and Numbers, September 21, 2005. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/news/nn/nn092105.htm