Title : Perioperative management of anemia in patients undergoing elective surgery
Abstract:
The complexity and deficiencies in current perioperative pathways for people with anaemia are well-described, optimising these patients pre-operatively before major trauma and orthopaedic surgeries reduced chances of readmission, mortality and poor wound healing. The CPOC guidelines for management of anaemia in the peri-operative pathway was the standard used to assess the quality of care received by patients with pre-existing anaemia undergoing elective surgery. A retrospective data collection of 30 patients, who were identified from pre-operative assessment to have anaemia. The data was collected between October 2025 and April 2026 prior to an elective procedure.
Elective procedure chosen were specifically trauma and orthopaedic electives as these procedures are outlines as high risk of significant bleeding in the CPOC guidelines. The results yielded varying treatments post-operatively for patients who had a significant Hb drop intra-operatively. Pre-operative blood test had been taken in accordance with guidelines during the pre-operative assessment but it was hard to determine whether any adjustments were made to accommodate for patients. Our data also showed that there was no uniformity in continuation of care in regards to anaemia in the primary setting. This raises important questions as to whether a hospital trust guideline on follow up for patients with anaemia would be useful to ensure patients are getting adequate guidance in treating their anaemia in the community.
