Sherri Ozawa

Activity-based costs of blood transfusions in surgical patients at four hospitals

BACKGROUND: Blood utilization has long been suspected to consume more health care resources than previously reported. Incomplete accounting for blood costs has the potential to misdirect programmatic decision making by health care systems. Determining the cost of supplying patients with blood transfusions requires an in‐depth examination of the complex array of activities surrounding the decision to transfuse.

What is really dangerous: anaemia or transfusion?

Summary While complex physiological mechanisms exist to regulate and optimize tissue oxygenation under various conditions, clinical and experimental evidence indicates that anaemia, unchecked, is associated with organ injury and unfavourable outcomes. More data (especially from human studies) are needed to answer questions regarding the optimal approaches to the treatment of acute and chronic anaemia. Meantime, allogeneic blood transfusions remain the most common treatment, particularly in surgical/trauma patients and those with moderate-to-severe anaemia. Clinical studies emphasize the paradox that both anaemia and transfusion are associated with organ injury and increased morbidity and mortality across a wide span of disease states and surgical interventions. Further characterization of the mechanisms of injury is needed to appropriately balance these risks and to develop novel treatment strategies that will improve patient outcomes. Here, we present the current understanding of the physiological mechanisms of tissue oxygen delivery, utilization, adaptation, and survival in the face of anaemia and current evidence on the independent (and often, synergistic) deleterious impact of anaemia and transfusion on patient outcomes. The risks of anaemia and transfusion in the light of substantial variations in transfusion practices, increasing costs, shrinking pool of donated resources, and ambiguity about actual clinical benefits of banked allogeneic blood demand better management strategies targeted at improving patient outcomes.

Appropriateness of allogeneic red blood cell transfusion: the international consensus conference on transfusion outcomes.

An international multidisciplinary panel of 15 experts reviewed 494 published articles and used the RAND/UCLA Appropriateness Method to determine the appropriateness of allogeneic red blood cell (RBC) transfusion based on its expected impact on outcomes of stable nonbleeding patients in 450 typical inpatient medical, surgical, or trauma scenarios. Panelists rated allogeneic RBC transfusion as appropriate in 53 of the scenarios (11.8%), inappropriate in 267 (59.3%), and uncertain in 130 (28.9%). Red blood cell transfusion was most often rated appropriate (81%) in scenarios featuring patients with hemoglobin (Hb) level 7.9 g/dL or less, associated comorbidities, and age older than 65 years. Red blood cell transfusion was rated inappropriate in all scenarios featuring patients with Hb level 10 g/dL or more and in 71.3% of scenarios featuring patients with Hb level 8 to 9.9 g/dL. Conversely, no scenario with patients Hb level of 8 g/dL or more was rated as appropriate. Nearly one third of all scenarios were rated uncertain, indicating the need for more research. The observation that allogeneic RBC transfusions were rated as either inappropriate or uncertain in most scenarios in this study supports a more judicious transfusion strategy. In addition, the large number of scenarios in which RBC transfusions were rated as uncertain can serve as a road map to identify areas in need of further investigation.

Economic considerations on transfusion medicine and patient blood management

In times of escalating health-care cost, it is of great importance to carefully assess the cost-effectiveness and appropriateness of the most resource-consuming health interventions. A long-standing and common clinical practice that has been underestimated in cost and overestimated in effectiveness is the transfusion of allogeneic blood products. Studies show that this intervention comes with largely underestimated service cost and unacceptably high utilisation variability for matched patients, thus adding billions of unnecessary dollars to the health-care expenditure each year. Moreover, a large and increasing body of literature points to a dose-dependent increase of morbidity and mortality and adverse long-term outcomes associated with transfusion whereas published evidence for benefit is extremely limited. This means that transfusion may be a generator for increased hospital stay and possible re-admissions, resulting in additional billions in unnecessary expenditure for the health system. In contrast to this, there are evidence-based and cost-effective treatment options available to pre-empt and reduce allogeneic transfusions. The patient-specific rather than a product-centred application of these multiple modalities is termed patient blood management (PBM). From a health-economic perspective, the expeditious implementation of PBM programmes is clearly indicated. Both patients and payers could benefit from this concept that has recently been endorsed through the World Health Assembly resolution WHA63.12.

A practical approach to achieving bloodless surgery.

The term bloodless surgery refers to the practice of performing surgical procedures without the use of allogenic blood and avoiding the use of stored blood, including autologous blood, entirely. This article reviews the scientific and clinical literature regarding bloodless surgery and describes the application of a full-service, bloodless program within a community hospital.

Activity-based costs of plasma transfusions in medical and surgical inpatients at a US hospital

Fresh frozen plasma (FFP) usage has significantly increased over the last decade leading to elevated healthcare costs. Although FFP is used in several clinical settings, it is often inappropriately transfused and evidence for its clinical efficacy is poor. Here, we describe plasma usage and transfusion costs in a real‐world US inpatient setting to determine the cost‐effectiveness of FFP transfusion and for comparison to various patient blood management (PBM) options to treat coagulopathies.

Topical Hemostatic Therapy in Surgery: Bridging the Knowledge and Practice Gap

Hemorrhage is a leading cause of preventable morbidity and mortality in and out of the operating room. Surgical bleeding can have a significant impact on both patient outcomes and health care costs. Poor hemorrhage control is strongly linked with untoward outcomes and drives clinicians to use treatment methods that may further lead to increased morbidity and mortality. 1,2 Adverse events related to bleeding and blood transfusion are dosedependent, with increased transfusion rates associated with higher morbidity. 3,4 A retrospective analysis of more than 1 million surgical procedures of varying types found that bleeding-related surgical complications occurred in 29.9% of patient operations, translating into a 6-day average increase in hospital length of stay. 5 In this study,

Anaemia: can we define haemoglobin thresholds for impaired oxygen homeostasis and suggest new strategies for treatment?

Observational clinical studies in perioperative medicine have defined a progressive increase in mortality that is proportional to both chronic preoperative anaemia and acute interpretative reductions in haemoglobin concentration (Hb). However, this knowledge has not yet helped to define the critical Hb threshold for organ injury and mortality in specific patient populations or in individual patients. Nor has this knowledge enabled us to develop effective treatment strategies for anaemia, as evident from the lack of a demonstrable improvement in survival in patients randomised to higher Hb levels by various treatment strategies including allogeneic red blood cell transfusion, erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs) and haemoglobin-based oxygen carriers (HBOCs). These findings emphasise the need for a clearer understanding of the mechanism of anaemia-induced mortality. Towards achieving this goal, experimental studies have defined adaptive mechanism by which oxygen homeostasis is maintained during acute anaemia. The mechanisms include: (1) effective sensing of anaemia-induced tissue hypoxia; (2) adaptive cardiovascular responses to maintain adequate tissue oxygen delivery; (3) heterogeneity of organ-specific oxygen delivery to preferentially sustain vital organs which are essential for acute survival (heart and brain); (4) evidence of increased vital organ injury with interruption of cardiovascular responses to anaemia and (5) evidence of activation of adaptive cellular responses to maintain oxygen homeostasis and support survival during acute anaemia. Understanding these mechanisms may allow us to define treatment thresholds and novel treatment strategies for acute anaemia based on biological markers of tissue hypoxia. The overall goal of these approaches is to improve patient outcomes, including event-free perioperative survival.

Management of Anemia in Patients with Congestive Heart Failure

Anemia is an independent risk factor for adverse patient outcomes. There are no guidelines for management of anemia in patients with congestive heart failure (CHF), despite its high incidence. Four objectives were defined by the International Anemia Management and Clinical Outcomes Expert Panel (AMCO), a multinational group of interdisciplinary experts identified by the Society for the Advancement of Blood Management (SABM) to: determine the prevalence of anemia in outpatients; to determine the prevalence of hospital‐acquired anemia; to assess the impact of anemia management on clinical outcomes such as quality of life and functional status; and to provide recommendations for primary care physicians and specialists for the diagnosis, evaluation, and management of anemia in patients with CHF. Anemia and iron deficiency were confirmed to be highly prevalent in patients with CHF. Intravenous iron therapy improves anemia, cardiac function and exercise tolerance, leading to improvement in quality of life. Anemia management has been demonstrated to be cost‐effective. Clinical care pathways to manage anemia in patients with CHF are recommended as best practices in order to improve patient outcomes. Am. J. Hematol. 92:88–93, 2017.

Patient Blood Management as Standard of Care.

October 2016 • Volume 123 • Number 4 www.anesthesia-analgesia.org 1051 Copyright