No significant difference in mortality for critically ill receiving freshest or oldest available red cells
WEDNESDAY, Sept. 27, 2017 (HealthDay News) — For critically ill adults, the age of transfused red cells does not affect 90-day mortality, according to a study published online Sept. 27 in the New England Journal of Medicine to coincide with the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM) 30th Annual Congress, held from Sept. 23 to 27 in Vienna.
D. James Cooper, M.D., from Monash University in Australia, and colleagues randomized critically ill adults to receive the freshest available, compatible, allogeneic red cells (short-term storage group) or standard-issue (oldest-available), compatible, allogeneic red cells (long-term storage group) in a double-blind trial. A total of 4,919 patients at 59 centers in five countries were included in the primary analysis.
The researchers found that the mean storage duration was 11.8 and 22.4 days for the 2,457 and 2,462 patients in the short-term and long-term storage groups, respectively. At 90 days, there were 24.8 and 24.1 percent of patients had died in the short- and long-term storage groups, respectively (absolute risk difference, 0.7 percentage points; 95 percent confidence interval, −1.7 to 3.1; P = 0.57). The absolute risk difference was 0.4 percentage points at 180 days (95 percent confidence interval, −2.1 to 3; P = 0.75). No significant between-group differences in outcome were seen for most of the prespecified secondary measures.
“The age of transfused red cells did not affect 90-day mortality among critically ill adults,” the authors write.
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