Better Assessment of Transfusions Could Save Blood Supplies

A new report discussing critical care issues for the nephrologist recommends that alternative treatments may lead to fewer transfusions, conserving critical blood supplies in hospitals.

According to a researcher at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (Lebanon, NH, USA), critically ill patients are anemic early in their intensive care unit (ICU) course. As a consequence of this anemia they receive a large number of red blood cell (RBC) transfusions. The author commented that there is little evidence that routine transfusion of stored allogeneic RBCs is beneficial to critically ill patients and could in fact be associated with worse clinical outcomes. The article was published in the December 2006 issue of Seminars in Dialysis.

"There is now ample evidence suggesting that the anemia observed in the critically ill is an underproduction anemia, consistent with what is commonly referred to as the anemia of chronic inflammatory disease,” said author Howard L. Corwin, M.D., feom the department of critical care medicine. "It is clear that most critically ill patients can tolerate hemoglobin levels as low as 7 g/dl and therefore a more conservative approach to RBC transfusion is warranted.”

"Strategies to minimize loss of blood and increase the production of RBCs are also important in the management of all critically ill patients,” concluded Dr. Corwin.


Related Links:
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center