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Some Questions to Ask When Deciding When to Transfuse Red Blood Cells

Description

Villanueva et al used 7 g/dL as the threshold for transfusing a patient with acute upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage. However, several groups were excluded from the study. This could be the basis for some simple questions on deciding how low you can go before transfusing red blood cells.


 

Premise: 7 g/dL is a suitable target if the patient has no reasons to transfuse higher and the person is physiologically fit or robust.

 

Reasons to transfuse at a higher hemoglobin level:

(1) The person is not physiologically robust.

(2) There has been massive bleeding with hypotension or shock.

(3) The patient has one or more conditions adversely affected by hypoxemia such as cardiovascular disease.

(4) The person does not have a functioning bone marrow (as in myelodysplasia or after cancer chemotherapy).

(5) The person’s own red cells or hemoglobin are defective.

 


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Specialty

ICD-10