Thread: Are Blood Transfusions Safe? Study says yes? Hmmm?

There was an Australian study just released from embargo. How would you answer it if a clinician posed the question to you...

Are blood transfusions safe? This seems to say they are.

Here is the link to my blog posting on the topic. What can you add?

Ulterior Health 2009 July

PS. Ok, I am a bit cynical for the sake of the blog audience. But let reason prevail in your thoughts.

Table 1 in the article in question clearly shows a relationship between blood transfusion and mortality as follows: No transfusion 11% [mortality], 1-2 units 14%, 3-6 units 19%, >6 units 23%. The authors' conclusion that "Moderate Exposure to Allogeneic Blood Products Is Not Associated with Reduced Long-term Survival after Surgery for Coronary Artery Disease" (in the article title) is obviously at variance with their own statistics.
This is also a study in scientific anachronism.
Nathaniel Usoro MD, FWACS, FICS