About this Medicine article

A multicenter, randomized, controlled clinical trial of transfusion requirements in critical care. Transfusion Requirements in Critical Care Investigators, Canadian Critical Care Trials Group by Paul C. Hébert; George Wells; Morris A. Blajchman; John Marshall; Claudio Martin; Giuseppe Pagliarello; Martin Tweeddale; Irwin Schweitzer; Elizabeth Yetisir is a Medicine article available to read on EtoBox.

## Background: To determine whether a restrictive strategy of red-cell transfusion and a liberal strategy produced equivalent results in critically ill patients, we compared the rates of death from all causes at 30 days and the severity of organ dysfunction. ## Methods: We enrolled 838 critically ill patients with euvolemia after initial treatment who had hemoglobin concentrations of less than 9.0 g per deciliter within 72 hours after admission to the intensive care unit and randomly assigned 418 patients to a restrictive strategy of transfusion, in which red cells were transfused if the hemoglobin concentration dropped below 7.0 g per deciliter and hemoglobin concentrations were maintained at 7.0 to 9.0 g per deciliter, and 420 patients to a liberal strategy, in which transfusions were given when the hemoglobin concentration fell below 10.0 g per deciliter and hemoglobin concentrations were maintained at 10.0 to 12.0 g per deciliter. ## Results: Overall, 30-day mortality was similar in the two groups (18.7 percent vs. 23.3 percent, p= 0.11). however, the rates were significantly lower with the restrictive transfusion strategy among patients who were less acutely ill -- those with

Author

Paul C. Hébert; George Wells; Morris A. Blajchman; John Marshall; Claudio Martin; Giuseppe Pagliarello; Martin Tweeddale; Irwin Schweitzer; Elizabeth Yetisir

Publisher

Massachusetts Medical Society

Published

1999

Language

EN

Field

Medicine (Health Sciences)