• Monisha A Kumar, Joshua Levine, Jennifer Faerber, J Paul Elliott, H Richard Winn, Sean Doerfler, and Le Roux Peter P Brain and Spine Center and Lankenau Institute of Medical Research Lankenau Medical Center, Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, USA. Electronic address: lerouxp@mlhs..
• Department of Neurosurgery, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
• World Neurosurg. 2017 Dec 1; 108: 807-816.

BackgroundThe optimal red blood cell transfusion (RBCT) trigger for patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) is unknown. In patients with cerebral vasospasm, anemia may increase susceptibility to ischemic injury; conversely, RBCT may worsen outcome given known deleterious effects.ObjectiveTo examine the association between RBCT, delayed cerebral ischemia (DCI), vasospasm, and outcome after SAH.MethodsA total of 421 consecutive patients with SAH, admitted to a neurocritical care unit at a university-affiliated hospital and who underwent surgical occlusion of their ruptured aneurysm were retrospectively identified from a prospective observational database. Propensity score methods were used to reduce the bias associated with treatment selection.ResultsTwo hundred and sixty-one patients (62.0%) received an RBCT. Angiographic vasospasm (odds ratio [OR] 1.6; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.1-2.3; P = 0.025) but not severe angiographic spasm, DCI, or delayed infarction was associated with RBCT. A total of 283 patients (67.2%) experienced a favorable outcome, defined as good or moderately disabled on the Glasgow Outcome Scale; 47 (11.2%) were severely disabled or vegetative and 91 patients (21.6%) were dead at 6-month follow-up. Among patients who survived ≥2 days, RBCT was associated with unfavorable outcome (OR, 2.6; 95% CI, 1.6-4.1). Transfusion of ≥3 units of blood was associated with an increased incidence of unfavorable outcome. Propensity analysis to control for the probability of exposure to RBCT conditional on observed covariates measured before RBCT indicates that RBCT is associated with unfavorable outcome in the absence of DCI (OR, 2.17; 95% CI, 1.56-3.01; P < 0.0001) but not when DCI is present (OR, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.35-1.92; P = 0.65).ConclusionsBlood transfusions are associated with unfavorable outcome after SAH particularly when DCI is absent. Propensity analysis suggests that RBCT may be associated with poor outcome rather than being a marker of disease severity. However, when DCI is present, RBCT may help improve outcome.Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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