Transfusion medicine
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Transfusion medicine · Aug 2005
Comparative StudyCosts associated with blood transfusions in Sweden--the societal cost of autologous, allogeneic and perioperative RBC transfusion.
Anaemia is characterised by an insufficient number of red blood cells (RBCs) and might occur for different reasons, e.g. surgical procedures are often with associated blood loss. Patients who suffer from anaemia have the option of treatment with blood transfusion or medical treatment. In this study, the societal cost, for the case of Sweden, of RBC transfusion using three different techniques, i.e. allogeneic, autologous and intraoperative transfusion, was estimated. ⋯ Transfusion reactions accounted for almost 35 per cent of the costs of allogeneic RBC transfusions. The administration cost was found to be much higher for autologous transfusions compared with allogeneic transfusions. The cost of intraoperative erythrocyte salvage was calculated to be SEK 2567 (285 Euro) per transfusion (>4 units).
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Transfusion medicine · Aug 2005
A retrospective study evaluating single-unit red blood cell transfusions in reducing allogeneic blood exposure.
Although guidelines recommend the use of single-unit red blood cell (RBC) transfusions to minimize allogeneic blood exposure, clinical practice remains dominated by two-unit transfusions. This study assesses the potential impact of a single-unit transfusion policy on reducing RBC utilization. We performed a retrospective analysis of adult patients admitted to a tertiary care hospital who received one or two RBC units. ⋯ This corresponds to 0.21, 0.57 and 0.82 mean RBC units saved per patient. In the orthopaedic subpopulation, the mean RBC units saved are 0.53, 0.88 and 1.00 for the same haemoglobin targets. Adopting a policy of transfusing RBC in single-unit aliquots could significantly improve RBC utilization and decrease patient exposure to allogeneic blood.