BACKGROUND To compare the effect of aprotinin with the effect of lysine analogues (tranexamic acid and ε-aminocaproic acid) on early mortality in three subgroups of patients: low, intermediate and high risk of cardiac surgery. METHODS AND FINDINGS We performed a meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials and observational with the following data sources: Medline, Cochrane Library, and refe...

OBJECTIVE To assess the effect of an intensive glucose management protocol in a heterogeneous population of critically ill adult patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS This study consisted of 800 consecutive patients admitted after institution of the protocol (treatment group, between February 1, 2003, and January 10, 2004) and 800 patients admitted immediately preceding institution of the protocol (...

BACKGROUND In children and adolescents with fever in neutropenia (FN) during chemotherapy for cancer, hemoglobin ≥90 g/L at presentation with FN had been associated with adverse events (AE). This analysis explored three hypothetical pathophysiological mechanisms potentially explaining this counterintuitive finding, and further analyzed the statistical association between hemoglobin and AE. ME...

We report a patient who was suspected of transfusion-related acute lung injury. A 60-year-old man underwent emergency thoracotomy and hemostasis after pneumonectomy. The SpO2, decreased abruptly to 66% 90 minutes after transfusion of packed red blood cells and fresh frozen plasma. He was ventilated with 100% oxygen. The SPO2 returned to 100% in 3 minutes. Postoperative chest radiography showed ...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether critically ill patients who receive allogenic packed red blood cell transfusions are at increased risk of developing nosocomial infections during hospitalization. DESIGN Retrospective database study utilizing Project IMPACT. SETTING A 40-bed medical-surgical-trauma intensive care unit in an 825-bed tertiary referral teaching hospital. PATIENTS One thousand s...

background: host immune system response against blood group antigens is a major problem in blood transfusions, especially forthalassemic patients. thus, an approach was proposed coating the red blood cell (rbc) surface by polyethylene glycol.objectives: this study aimed to obtain the optimal simultaneous camouflge of the major and minor antigens by activated methoxypolyethylene glycol (mpeg) wi...

Patients with gastrointestinal bleeding often require large volume blood transfusion. Among the various side effects of blood transfusion, the increase of potassium levels is a serious one which is often overlooked. We report a case of severe hyperkalemia in a patient with gastric bleeding after large volume transfusion of packed red blood cells. The patient had hyperkalemia at baseline associa...