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Severe anemia in children is a major public health problem in sub‐Saharan Africa. In this study we describe clinical and operational aspects of blood transfusion in children admitted to Coast Provincial General Hospital, Kenya.

This was an observational study where over a 2‐year period, demographic and laboratory data were collected on all children for whom the hospital blood bank received a transfusion request. Clinical data were obtained by retrospective review of case notes over the first year.

There were 2789 requests for blood for children (median age, 1.8 years; interquartile range [IQR], 0.6‐6.6 years); 70% (1950) of the samples were crossmatched with 85% (1663/1950) issued. Ninety percent (1505/1663) were presumed transfused. Median time from laboratory receipt of request to collection of blood was 3.6 hours (IQR, 1.4‐12.8 hr). Case …