Is ‘Group and Save’ Blood Request Routinely Required for Nasopharyngeal Biopsy?

Objectives: To establish our current practice of ‘group and save' blood for nasopharyngeal tumour biopsy (NB), and to determine the rate of blood transfusions among patients who underwent NB under general anaesthesia. Methods: A retrospective chart review of all patients who underwent biopsy of NB in our tertiary institution between January 2006 and December 2015 was undertaken. Those with Juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofi broma were excluded. Data retrieved included patients' characteristics such as age/sex, anaemia, primary tumour extension, and histology. Outcome measures included rate of ‘group and save blood' requests, intra-operative blood loss, blood transfusion rates. Comparison was made between those that were requested to group and save blood prior to surgery (group ‘A') and the group ‘B' that were not so requested.