Methodologic quality assessment of red blood cell transfusion guidelines and the evidence base of more restrictive transfusion thresholds

Transfusion ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 472-480 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans Van Remoortel ◽  
Emmy De Buck ◽  
Tessa Dieltjens ◽  
Nele S. Pauwels ◽  
Veerle Compernolle ◽  
...  
2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  

More and more data is coming in recent times about hazards of blood transfusion. In a landmark TRICC1 trial Euvolemic patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) with Hb<9 g/dl were randomized to a restrictive transfusion strategy for transfusion of PRBCs (transfused if Hb<7 g/dl to maintain Hb between 7 and 9 g/dl) or a liberal strategy (transfused if Hb<10 g/dl to maintain Hb 10-12 g/dl). Mortality was similar in both groups, indicating that liberal transfusions were not beneficial. An Updated Report by the American Society of AnaesthesiologistsTask Force on Perioperative Blood Management tells us restrictive red blood cell transfusion strategy may be safely used to reduce transfusion administration. It further states that The determination of whether hemoglobin concentrations between 6 and 10 g/dl justify or require red blood cell transfusion should be based on potential or actual on going bleeding (rate and magnitude), intravascular volume status, signs of organ ischemia, and adequacy of cardiopulmonary reserve. Should we extrapolate these guidelines in Cardiac surgery? TRACS2 trial concluded that among patients undergoing cardiac surgery, the use of a restrictive perioperative transfusion strategy compared with a more liberal strategy resulted in noninferior rates of the combined outcome of 30-day all-cause mortality and severe morbidity.They advocated use of restrictive strategy, but 5 years later, the authors 3concluded that A restrictive transfusion threshold after cardiac surgery was not superior to a liberal threshold with respect to morbidity or health care costs. With this conflicting evidence, by which way anaesthesiologist to go?


2006 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. A127
Author(s):  
Rafael B Tomita ◽  
Daniele M Torres ◽  
Maria Tereza M Ferrari ◽  
João M Silva ◽  
Paulo Sérgio D Urtado ◽  
...  

2006 ◽  
Vol 130 (4) ◽  
pp. 474-479 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark T. Friedman ◽  
Amber Ebrahim

Abstract Context.—A major function of the hospital transfusion service is to assess the appropriateness of blood transfusion. Inadequate documentation of transfusions may hamper this assessment process. Objective.—To correlate the level of physician documentation of transfusion with the ability to justify transfusion. Design.—Retrospective review of red blood cell transfusions in adult patients in 2 hospital facilities during 1-week audit periods of each month from April 2001 to March 2003. Assessment forms were used to classify the level of physician documentation of transfusions into 3 groups: adequately, intermediately, and inadequately documented. Transfusions were deemed justified or not via comparison with hospital transfusion guidelines. Results.—There were 5062 audited red blood cells transfused to 2044 adult (≥18 years) patients. Medical records from 154 patients transfused with 257 units of red blood cells during 172 transfusion events were reviewed after initial screenings of hemoglobin/hematocrit values failed to justify the transfusions. Nine percent of adequately documented, 50% of intermediately documented, and 73% of inadequately documented transfusion events could not be justified. Transfusion events with suboptimal (intermediate and inadequate) documentation accounted for 49% of all medical record–reviewed transfusion events and 62% could not be justified. The correlation between inadequate documentation and failure to justify transfusion was significant (P &lt; .001), as was the correlation between suboptimal documentation and failure to justify transfusion (P = .03). Conclusions.—There is a significant correlation between suboptimal documentation and failure to justify transfusions. Educating clinicians to improve documentation along with appropriate indications for transfusions may enhance efficiency of blood utilization assessment and lead to reduced rates of unjustifiable transfusions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yeshen Zhang ◽  
Zhengrong Xu ◽  
Yuming Huang ◽  
Qirao Ye ◽  
Nianjin Xie ◽  
...  

Objective: Anemia is frequent in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI), and the optimal red blood cell transfusion strategy for AMI patients with anemia is still controversial. We aimed to compare the efficacy of restrictive and liberal red cell transfusion strategies in AMI patients with anemia.Methods: We systematically searched PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and Clinicaltrials.gov, from their inception until March 2021. Studies designed to compare the efficacy between restrictive and liberal red blood cell transfusion strategies in patients with AMI were included. The primary outcome was all-cause mortality, including overall mortality, in-hospital or follow-up mortality. Risk ratios (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were presented and pooled by random-effects models.Results: The search yielded a total of 6,630 participants in six studies. A total of 2,008 patients received restrictive red blood cell transfusion while 4,622 patients were given liberal red blood cell transfusion. No difference was found in overall mortality and follow-up mortality between restrictive and liberal transfusion groups (RR = 1.07, 95% CI = 0.82–1.40, P = 0.62; RR = 0.89, 95% CI = 0.56–1.42, P = 0.62). However, restrictive transfusion tended to have a higher risk of in-hospital mortality compared with liberal transfusion (RR = 1.22, 95% CI = 1.00–1.50, P = 0.05). No secondary outcomes, including follow-up reinfarction, stroke, and acute heart failure, differed significantly between the two groups. In addition, subgroup analysis showed no differences in overall mortality between the two groups based on sample size and design.Conclusion: Restrictive and liberal red blood cell transfusion have a similar effect on overall mortality and follow-up mortality in AMI patients with anemia. However, restrictive transfusion tended to have a higher risk of in-hospital mortality compared with liberal transfusion. The findings suggest that transfusion strategy should be further evaluated in future studies.


2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (7) ◽  
pp. 1294-1304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amit X. Garg ◽  
Neal Badner ◽  
Sean M. Bagshaw ◽  
Meaghan S. Cuerden ◽  
Dean A. Fergusson ◽  
...  

BackgroundSafely reducing red blood cell transfusions can prevent transfusion-related adverse effects, conserve the blood supply, and reduce health care costs. Both anemia and red blood cell transfusion are independently associated with AKI, but observational data are insufficient to determine whether a restrictive approach to transfusion can be used without increasing AKI risk.MethodsIn a prespecified kidney substudy of a randomized noninferiority trial, we compared a restrictive threshold for red blood cell transfusion (transfuse if hemoglobin<7.5 g/dl, intraoperatively and postoperatively) with a liberal threshold (transfuse if hemoglobin<9.5 g/dl in the operating room or intensive care unit, or if hemoglobin<8.5 g/dl on the nonintensive care ward). We studied 4531 patients undergoing cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass who had a moderate-to-high risk of perioperative death. The substudy’s primary outcome was AKI, defined as a postoperative increase in serum creatinine of ≥0.3 mg/dl within 48 hours of surgery, or ≥50% within 7 days of surgery.ResultsPatients in the restrictive-threshold group received significantly fewer transfusions than patients in the liberal-threshold group (1.8 versus 2.9 on average, or 38% fewer transfusions in the restricted-threshold group compared with the liberal-threshold group; P<0.001). AKI occurred in 27.7% of patients in the restrictive-threshold group (624 of 2251) and in 27.9% of patients in the liberal-threshold group (636 of 2280). Similarly, among patients with preoperative CKD, AKI occurred in 33.6% of patients in the restrictive-threshold group (258 of 767) and in 32.5% of patients in the liberal-threshold group (252 of 775).ConclusionsAmong patients undergoing cardiac surgery, a restrictive transfusion approach resulted in fewer red blood cell transfusions without increasing the risk of AKI.


1997 ◽  
Vol 166 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Joshi ◽  
M. McCarroll ◽  
P. O’Rourke ◽  
F. Coffey

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (60) ◽  
pp. 1-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barnaby C Reeves ◽  
Katie Pike ◽  
Chris A Rogers ◽  
Rachel CM Brierley ◽  
Elizabeth A Stokes ◽  
...  

BackgroundUncertainty about optimal red blood cell transfusion thresholds in cardiac surgery is reflected in widely varying transfusion rates between surgeons and cardiac centres.ObjectiveTo test the hypothesis that a restrictive compared with a liberal threshold for red blood cell transfusion after cardiac surgery reduces post-operative morbidity and health-care costs.DesignMulticentre, parallel randomised controlled trial and within-trial cost–utility analysis from a UK NHS and Personal Social Services perspective. We could not blind health-care staff but tried to blind participants. Random allocations were generated by computer and minimised by centre and operation.SettingSeventeen specialist cardiac surgery centres in UK NHS hospitals.ParticipantsPatients aged > 16 years undergoing non-emergency cardiac surgery with post-operative haemoglobin < 9 g/dl. Exclusion criteria were: unwilling to have transfusion owing to beliefs; platelet, red blood cell or clotting disorder; ongoing or recurrent sepsis; and critical limb ischaemia.InterventionsParticipants in the liberal group were eligible for transfusion immediately after randomisation (post-operative haemoglobin < 9 g/dl); participants in the restrictive group were eligible for transfusion if their post-operative haemoglobin fell to < 7.5 g/dl during the index hospital stay.Main outcome measuresThe primary outcome was a composite outcome of any serious infectious (sepsis or wound infection) or ischaemic event (permanent stroke, myocardial infarction, gut infarction or acute kidney injury) during the 3 months after randomisation. Events were verified or adjudicated by blinded personnel. Secondary outcomes included blood products transfused; infectious events; ischaemic events; quality of life (European Quality of Life-5 Dimensions); duration of intensive care or high-dependency unit stay; duration of hospital stay; significant pulmonary morbidity; all-cause mortality; resource use, costs and cost-effectiveness.ResultsWe randomised 2007 participants between 15 July 2009 and 18 February 2013; four withdrew, leaving 1000 and 1003 in the restrictive and liberal groups, respectively. Transfusion rates after randomisation were 53.4% (534/1000) and 92.2% (925/1003). The primary outcome occurred in 35.1% (331/944) and 33.0% (317/962) of participants in the restrictive and liberal groups [odds ratio (OR) 1.11, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.91 to 1.34;p = 0.30], respectively. There were no subgroup effects for the primary outcome, although some sensitivity analyses substantially altered the estimated OR. There were no differences for secondary clinical outcomes except for mortality, with more deaths in the restrictive group (4.2%, 42/1000 vs. 2.6%, 26/1003; hazard ratio 1.64, 95% CI 1.00 to 2.67;p = 0.045). Serious post-operative complications excluding primary outcome events occurred in 35.7% (354/991) and 34.2% (339/991) of participants in the restrictive and liberal groups, respectively. The total cost per participant from surgery to 3 months postoperatively differed little by group, just £182 less (standard error £488) in the restrictive group, largely owing to the difference in red blood cells cost. In the base-case cost-effectiveness results, the point estimate suggested that the restrictive threshold was cost-effective; however, this result was very uncertain partly owing to the negligible difference in quality-adjusted life-years gained.ConclusionsA restrictive transfusion threshold is not superior to a liberal threshold after cardiac surgery. This finding supports restrictive transfusion due to reduced consumption and costs of red blood cells. However, secondary findings create uncertainty about recommending restrictive transfusion and prompt a new hypothesis that liberal transfusion may be superior after cardiac surgery. Reanalyses of existing trial datasets, excluding all participants who did not breach the liberal threshold, followed by a meta-analysis of the reanalysed results are the most obvious research steps to address the new hypothesis about the possible harm of red blood cell transfusion.Trial registrationCurrent Controlled Trials ISRCTN70923932.FundingThis project was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment programme and will be published in full inHealth Technology Assessment; Vol. 20, No. 60. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information.


JAMA ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 316 (19) ◽  
pp. 1984 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark H. Yazer ◽  
Darrell J. Triulzi

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document