medical news: Study confirms overuse of blood transfusions during surgery

Study confirms overuse of blood transfusions during surgery


"Citing the lack of clear guidelines for ordering blood transfusions during surgery, Johns Hopkins researchers say a new study confirms there is still wide variation in the use of transfusions and frequent use of transfused blood in patients who don't need it.
The resulting overuse of blood is problematic, the researchers say, because blood is a scarce and expensive resource and because recent studies have shown that surgical patients do no better, and may do worse, if given transfusions prematurely or unnecessarily. "Transfusion is not as safe as people think," says Steven M. Frank, M.D., leader of the study described in the journal Anesthesiology.....

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“There are now dozens of studies that demonstrate superior patient outcomes with restrictive transfusion practices,” Dr. Ereth said. “In general, the less blood you transfuse, the better your patient outcomes. In the future we will hopefully be able to further define the mechanisms of immune modulation with transfusion and then when transfusion is absolutely necessary, be able to design interventions to limit those effects.”
Until then, however, he stressed that efforts should be made in all clinical settings to minimize blood transfusion as much as possible.