Cryoprecipitate indications and patterns of use in the pediatric intensive care unit: inappropriate transfusions and lack of standardization.

DeSimone et al. reviewed the hospital charts of all patients admitted to the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) of the New York-Presbyterian Hospital from September 2010 to February 2015 in order to characterise the use of cryoprecipitate in PICU patients.

Cryoprecipitate were given to 44 patients, mostly for recent cardiac surgery (39%) or intravascular disseminated coagulation (32%), which are not recognised indications for cryoprecipitate. Pre- and post-transfusion fibrinogen was not assessed in 11 patients (25%) and 15 patients (34%), respectively.

The practice pattern observed in this study with respect to transfusion of cryoprecipitate was suboptimal. Prospective multicentre studies should be undertaken on this issue.

– Jacques Lacroix