The researchers found that in a cohort of 198 patients admitted to ICU after major abdominal cancer surgery, those subjected to a liberal blood transfusion threshold of < 9 g/dL experienced fewer major complications (NNT 6.2) than those subjected to a restrictive transfusion threshold (< 7 g/dL).

summary

• Juliano Pinheiro de Almeida, Jean-Louis Vincent, Filomena Regina Barbosa Gomes Galas, Elisangela Pinto Marinho de Almeida, Julia T Fukushima, Eduardo A Osawa, Fabricio Bergamin, Clarice Lee Park, Rosana Ely Nakamura, Silvia M R Fonseca, Guilherme Cutait, Joseane Inacio Alves, Mellik Bazan, Silvia Vieira, Ana C Vieira Sandrini, Henrique Palomba, Ulysses Ribeiro, Alexandre Crippa, Marcos Dalloglio, Maria del Pilar Estevez Diz, Roberto Kalil Filho, Jose Otavio Costa Auler, Andrew Rhodes, and Ludhmila Abrahao Hajjar.
• From the Surgical Intensive Care Unit and Department of Anesthesiology, Cancer Institute, Hospital das Clinicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil (J.P.d.A., F.R.B.G.G., E.P.M.d.A., J.T.F., E.A.O., F.B., C.L.P., R.E.N., S.M.R.F., J.I.A., M.B., S.V., A.C.V.S., H.P., R.K.F., J.O.C.A., L.A.H.); Department of Intensive Care, Erasme Hospital, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium (J.-L.V.); Department of Intensive Care Medicine, St. George's Healthcare NHS Trust, London, United Kingdom (A.R.); Department of Surgery, Cancer Institute, Hospital das Clinicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil (G.C., U.R., A.C., M.D.); and Department of Oncology, Cancer Institute, Hospital das Clinicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil (M.d.P.E.D.).
• Anesthesiology. 2015 Jan 1;122(1):29-38.

BackgroundSeveral studies have indicated that a restrictive erythrocyte transfusion strategy is as safe as a liberal one in critically ill patients, but there is no clear evidence to support the superiority of any perioperative transfusion strategy in patients with cancer.MethodsIn a randomized, controlled, parallel-group, double-blind (patients and outcome assessors) superiority trial in the intensive care unit of a tertiary oncology hospital, the authors evaluated whether a restrictive strategy of erythrocyte transfusion (transfusion when hemoglobin concentration <7 g/dl) was superior to a liberal one (transfusion when hemoglobin concentration <9 g/dl) for reducing mortality and severe clinical complications among patients having major cancer surgery. All adult patients with cancer having major abdominal surgery who required postoperative intensive care were included and randomly allocated to treatment with the liberal or the restrictive erythrocyte transfusion strategy. The primary outcome was a composite endpoint of mortality and morbidity.ResultsA total of 198 patients were included as follows: 101 in the restrictive group and 97 in the liberal group. The primary composite endpoint occurred in 19.6% (95% CI, 12.9 to 28.6%) of patients in the liberal-strategy group and in 35.6% (27.0 to 45.4%) of patients in the restrictive-strategy group (P = 0.012). Compared with the restrictive strategy, the liberal transfusion strategy was associated with an absolute risk reduction for the composite outcome of 16% (3.8 to 28.2%) and a number needed to treat of 6.2 (3.5 to 26.5).ConclusionA liberal erythrocyte transfusion strategy with a hemoglobin trigger of 9 g/dl was associated with fewer major postoperative complications in patients having major cancer surgery compared with a restrictive strategy.

20 keywords...

hide…