Zhou et al reviewed criteria for unnecessary perioperative blood transfusion in pediatric patients. Excessive blood transfusion is associated with a higher rate of complications and is wasteful of a scarce resource. The authors are from Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University in China.
Patient selection: pediatric surgical patient
The institutional trigger level for transfusion was 8 g/dL. The trigger level for a particular patient may be adjusted for comorbid conditions.
Inappropriate transfusion: transfusion when the pretransfusion hemoglobin is above the trigger level
Overtransfusion - one or both of the following:
(1) hemoglobin after transfusion > 10 g/dL
(2) hemoglobin after transfusion > ((trigger level) + 2) g/dL
The significance of the findings may be affected by a number of factors such as deterioration or bleeding after a transfusion starts.
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