• Michaël Chassé, Shane W English, Lauralyn McIntyre, Greg Knoll, Nadine Shehata, Alan Forster, Kumanan Wilson, Carl van Walraven, Alan Tinmouth, and Dean A Fergusson.
• Clinical Epidemiology program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, 501 Smyth Road, Box 201B, Ottawa, ON K1H 8L6, Canada. mchasse@ohri.ca.
• Syst Rev. 2014 Mar 20; 3: 28.

BackgroundOptimal selection of blood donors is of paramount importance in ensuring the safety of blood products. The current selection process is concerned principally with the safety of the blood donor and the safety of the patient that receives the blood. Recent evidence suggests that the characteristics of the donor may affect transfusion outcomes for the recipient.MethodsWe will conduct a systematic review of the association between major blood donor characteristics and red blood cell (RBC) transfusion outcomes. The primary objective is to assess the association of blood donor characteristics and the risk of adverse short-term and long-term clinical outcomes after RBC transfusion. We will search MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Central databases, as well as perform manual searches of top transfusion medical journals for prospective and retrospective studies. Study characteristics will be reported and the methodological quality of studies will be assessed. When appropriate, we will provide pooled odds ratio with 95% confidence intervals of the effect estimates, study clinical heterogeneity using pre-defined sensitivity and subgroup analyses, and study statistical heterogeneity using the I2 test.DiscussionThe results of this systematic review will provide an evidence base regarding the potential clinical effects of donor characteristics on transfusion recipients to better guide policy and clinical practice. The evidence gathered from this review will also identify strengths and weaknesses of published studies regarding donor characteristics and transfusion outcomes and will identify knowledge gaps to inform future research in this field of transfusion medicine.Trial RegistrationPROSPERO Registration Number: CRD42013006726.

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