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Red blood cell transfusion 'risk'
Heart surgery patients who receive red blood cell transfusions may be at increased risk of a heart attack or stroke, a new study suggests.
The research, published in the latest edition of Circulation journal, shows that patients who received a transfusion were three times more likely to experience complications related to a lack of oxygen.
Researchers at the Bristol Heart Institute who conducted the study looked at data related to over 8,500 patients, and found that transfusions for heart surgery patients could cause 'more problems than they solve'.
The transfusions are designed to improve the delivery of oxygen to the body's tissues, and are given to more than half of all heart surgery patients in the UK – often regardless of whether the patient displays symptoms that suggest a need for a transfusion.
The financial cost of giving transfusions and treating transfusion-related illnesses was also found to increase the overall cost of staying in hospital by over 40%.
Professor Peter Weissberg, medical director of the British Heart Foundation said that heart surgeons have assumed that patients with low red blood cell counts would benefit from a 'top up' transfusion of donated red blood cells.
'This study shows the importance of putting such widespread beliefs to the test.'
Category: Healthcare
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