The transfusion time (the time between starting and finishing blood transfusion) ranged widely from 2 – 16 hours.
The triggers for liberal transfusion ranged from haemoglobin 9 to 13 g/dL and haematocrit 30%to40%0%.
Currently, the risk of transmitting an infectious agent through blood transfusion ranges from 1 100,000 for hepatitis B virus to 1 1,000,000 for HIV (Canadian Blood Services, personal communication, 2000).
The triggers for restrictive transfusion ranged from haemoglobin 7.0 to 9.7 g/dL, haematocrit 24%to30%0%, or symptoms of anaemia as defined by the authors.
As reported by various authors, the percentage of patients after TKA who require a RBC transfusion ranges from 33 to 75%, and one unit of RBC is usually sufficient [ 36– 36].
While most patients (85%) received no platelet transfusions (range 0 6) during the standard dose VIP cycle, patients were transfused at a median of 2 days (range 0 12) during each high dose cycle.
Three patients from the intervention group (3/3 aorta surgery) received RBC transfusions (range 600 1800 ml).
In the control group 9 patients (3/9 aorta surgery) received red blood cell (RBC) transfusions (range 300 3400 ml).
Eleven (3%) of 322 children with a history of transfusion (mean 1.5 transfusions, range 1 10) were HCV seropositive, compared with 12 (5%) of 245 children with no history of transfusion (p = 0.38).
