Blood Conservation in Pediatric Surgical Patients

AbstractPurpose of ReviewPatient blood management (PBM) is an encompassing term to describe strategies to promote blood conservation, reduce unnecessary transfusions, and rationalize the administration of allogeneic blood products. In this review, we will summarize strategies involved in pediatric PBM, including preoperative optimization, intraoperative blood conservation, and systematic institutional interventions.Recent FindingsPreoperative optimization of hemoglobin, along with intraoperative blood conservation strategies, can potentially reduce exposure to allogeneic blood products in pediatric surgical patients. These strategies, when combined with systematic approaches such as real-time feedback and establishment of standardized transfusion algorithms, can significantly reduce patient ’s exposure to allogeneic blood products and, hopefully, improve outcome and resource allocation.SummaryThe implementation of perioperative blood conservation strategies has the potential to significantly reduce the prevalence of blood transfusion in the pediatric population. Further research is required to refine the interventions for the pediatric population to optimize the outcomes.
Source: Current Anesthesiology Reports - Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: research