Abstract

Globally, Autologous blood transfusion (ABT) programs are not well developed and reasons differ from different
countries. In East Africa including Uganda, Autologous transfusion has not exerted a significant impact on the
transfusion requirements in our Centres and there is paucity of data regarding ABT. The main objective of this
study was to assess knowledge and attitude of autologous blood transfusion among health workers in Fort portal
regional referral hospital. Institution based cross sectional study design was used and simple random sampling was
used to get 50 health workers. Data was collected by a self-administered questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS
software version 21.00. More than half of the participants 30(60%) were diploma holders and majority 28(56%) had
worked for 4-6 years. 42 (84%) had ever heard of autologous blood transfusion but none had ever practiced ABT.
Reasons for not practicing were lack of equipment and fear of side effects. The study found out that ABT was not
being practiced although all the respondents were willing to practice it if introduced by the hospital. The
government through ministry of health should design guidelines concerning ABT and train health workers through
CMEs