Massive blood transfusion and mortality in polytrauma patients

Editorial: Vox Sanguinis
Fecha: 01/01/2007
M. Muñoz, A. Campos & G. Ramírez2

We read with interest the paper on massive blood transfusion
(MBT) and outcome in polytrauma patients in Germany
published by Huber-Wagner et al. in a recent issue of Vox
Sanguinis [1], and would like to comment on the incidence
of MBT at our institution (a 700-bed university hospital). We
searched blood bank records for MBT episodes occurred from
January 2001 to December 2005, and patient’s clinical data
were exclusively gathered from the blood requesting form.
Overall, 304 episodes of MBT were identified in 288 patients
(upper digestive bleeding, elective surgeries, cardiovascular
surgeries, emergency surgeries, or polytrauma). Mortality
rate was 48%, and multivariate analysis identified age [odds
ratio (OR) 1·023, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1·006–1·040]
and number of red blood cell (RBC) units transfused within
the first 24 h (OR 1·094, 95%CI 1·0032–1·160) as weak but
significant independent predictors for mortality, whereas
polytrauma diagnosis was associated with the lowest mortality
(OR 0·325, 95%CI 0·112–0·940).

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