In patients undergoing cardiac surgery, transfusion of red cells that had been stored for more than 2 weeks was associated with a significantly increased risk of postoperative complications as well as reduced short-term and long-term survival.

Perioperative red blood cell transfusion is the single factor most reliably associated with increased risk of postoperative morbid events after isolated coronary artery bypass grafting. Each unit of red cells transfused is associated with incrementally increased risk for adverse outcome.

No abstract

No abstract

Witnesses do not appear to be at increased risk for surgical complications or long-term mortality when comparisons are properly made by transfusion status. Thus, current extreme blood management strategies do not appear to place patients at heightened risk for reduced long-term survival.

Perioperative glucose concentrations and glycemic variability are important in predicting outcomes after cardiac surgery. Incremental decreases of intraoperative glucose concentrations did not consistently reduce risk. Despite rare hypoglycemia, intraoperative glucose concentrations closest to normoglycemia were associated with worse outcomes.

BACKGROUND:Evidence suggests that patients with normal hemoglobin (Hgb) levels on hospital admission who subsequently develop hospital-acquired anemia (HAA) may be at risk for adverse outcomes. Our objectives were to (1) determine the prevalence of HAA and (2) examine whether HAA is associated with increased mortality, length of stay (LOS), and total hospital charges.

Although single exposure to anemia or RBC transfusion alone was associated with risk, it was generally lower than that of anemia and RBC exposure in combination.