Category: Transfusion Practice

Red blood cell transfusion guided by near infrared spectroscopy in neurocritically ill patients with moderate or severe anemia: a randomized, controlled trial.

Advances in the development and validation of physiological, accessible, practical and reliable markers to guide RBC transfusions are expected. Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is a non-invasive technique that uses the differential […]

Restrictive or liberal red-cell transfusion for cardiac surgery.

The comparison between liberal and restrictive transfusion strategies has been the topic of intense debate. To date, no study that ever found that one approach was superior to the other. […]

2017 EACTS/EACTA Guidelines on patient blood management for adult cardiac surgery.

There is growing evidence that patient blood management (PBM) is becoming “standard of care” in major surgery associated with high blood loss, particularly in cardiac surgery. These guidelines are the […]

Effect of an early resuscitation protocol on in-hospital mortality among adults with sepsis and hypotension: a randomized clinical trial.

This single-centre, randomised, controlled, non-blinded study evaluated the potential beneficial effect of an early goal-directed therapy (EGDT) protocol on sepsis outcomes among 212 patients in Zambia. The sepsis protocol was a […]

Liberal versus restrictive transfusion strategy in critically ill oncologic patients: the Transfusion Requirements in Critically Ill Oncologic Patients randomized controlled trial.

Liberal red blood cell (RBC) transfusion in critically ill oncology patients – Is liberal better in this population or is this another chance finding to be further evaluated? Bergamin and […]

Association between ratio of fresh frozen plasma to red blood cells during massive transfusion and survival among patients without traumatic injury.

Following reports from US military and civilian trauma centres, the practice of transfusing massively bleeding patients with a high FFP:RBC ratio has been widely adopted for the resuscitation of trauma […]

Improved outcomes and reduced costs associated with a health-system-wide patient blood management program: a retrospective observational study in four major adult tertiary-care hospitals.

“Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) are the de facto standard for answering clinical questions, delivering the highest grade of evidence available.” What sounds logical at first sight for many scientific problems […]

Patient blood management bundles to facilitate implementation.

How to cook a patient blood management programme! In this ‘position paper’, a group of well-known PBM experts offers us a how-to guide for those looking to implement PBM programmes. […]

Implementation of a transfusion bundle reduces inappropriate red blood cell transfusions in intensive care – a before and after study.

This study describes an intervention in one intensive care unit, consisting of a transfusion bundle in which 4 of 5 checkpoints relates to safety (i.e. correct identification of patient and […]

Reducing transfusions in critically injured patients using a restricted-criteria order set.

In this study, the authors deal with the problem of adherence to evidence-based transfusion criteria. As they correctly state, in a large hospital it is difficult to achieve homogeneous adherence […]

Exposure of stored packed erythrocytes to nitric oxide prevents transfusion-associated pulmonary hypertension.

This study investigated the potential role of of nitric oxide (NO) treatment of stored red blood cells (RBCs) before transfusion in a stable haemodynamic and non-inflammatory animal model. The authors […]

Does the severity of preoperative anemia or blood transfusion have a stronger impact on long-term survival after cardiac surgery?

In this study, von Heymann and colleagues describe the effects of different degrees of preoperative anaemia and/or transfusion on long-term survival. The most striking finding of this investigation is the […]

Variation in use of blood transfusion in primary total hip and knee arthroplasties.

This study reports on variability in red blood cell transfusion rates among US hospitals using a large dataset of 228 316 patients. Information was taken from discharge records from 2009-2011. The authors […]

Clinical practice guidelines from the AABB: red blood cell transfusion thresholds and storage.

The AABB has updated its guidelines on red blood cell (RBC) transfusion and storage issues. In summary, the authors recommend a restrictive RBC transfusion strategy in all haemodynamically stable hospitalised […]

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 […]