Restrictive red blood cell transfusion strategies appear safe in most clinical settings

Commentary on: Holst LB, Petersen MW, Haase N, et al. Restrictive versus liberal transfusion strategy for red blood cell transfusion: systematic review of randomised trials with meta-analysis and trial sequential analysis. BMJ 2015;350:h1354. Context Substantial progress has been made in generating data to make evidence-based recommendations for red blood cell (RBC) transfusion. Findings from clinical trials suggest that in most clinical settings, a restrictive transfusion strategy, where RBCs are transfused once haemoglobin levels fall below either 7 or 8 g/dL, does not impact mortality compared with liberal transfusion where RBCs are transfused when haemoglobin levels fall below 9–10 g/dL.1 This meta-analysis, incorporating data from five recently published clinical trials, was used to compare the overall risk of death and other adverse events of liberal and restrictive transfusion strategies. Methods The authors performed a study-level meta-analysis on 31 prospective randomised controlled trials of hospitalised patients (n=9813)...
Source: Evidence-Based Medicine - Category: Internal Medicine Authors: Tags: Clinical trials (epidemiology), Epidemiologic studies, Haematology (incl blood transfusion), Drugs: cardiovascular system, Stroke, Interventional cardiology, Ischaemic heart disease, Renal medicine Therapeutics/Prevention Source Type: research