TY - JOUR
T1 - Pre-hospital transfusion of red blood cells. Part 2
T2 - A systematic review of treatment effects on outcomes
AU - van Turenhout, Elisabeth C.
AU - Bossers, Sebastiaan M.
AU - Loer, Stephan A.
AU - Giannakopoulos, Georgios F.
AU - Schwarte, Lothar A.
AU - Schober, Patrick
N1 - © 2020 The Authors. Transfusion Medicine published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Blood Transfusion Society.
PY - 2020/4/1
Y1 - 2020/4/1
N2 - The primary aim of this systematic review is to describe the effects of prehospital transfusion of red blood cells (PHTRBC) on patient outcomes. Damage control resuscitation attempts to prevent death through haemorrhage in trauma patients. In this context, transfusion of red blood cells is increasingly used by emergency medical services (EMS). However, evidence on the effects on outcomes is scarce. PubMed and Web of Science were searched through January 2019; 55 articles were included. No randomised controlled studies were identified. While several observational studies suggest an increased survival after PHTRBC, consistent evidence for beneficial effects of PHTRBC on survival was not found. PHTRBC appears to improve haemodynamic parameters, but there is no evidence that shock on arrival to hospital is averted, nor of an association with trauma induced coagulopathy or with length of stay in hospitals or intensive care units. In conclusion, PHTRBC is increasingly used by EMS, but there is no strong evidence for effects of PHTRBC on mortality. Further research with study designs that allow causal inferences is required for more conclusive evidence. The combination of PHTRBC with plasma, as well as the use of individualised transfusion criteria, may potentially show more benefits and should be thoroughly investigated in the future. The review was registered at Prospero (CRD42018084658).
AB - The primary aim of this systematic review is to describe the effects of prehospital transfusion of red blood cells (PHTRBC) on patient outcomes. Damage control resuscitation attempts to prevent death through haemorrhage in trauma patients. In this context, transfusion of red blood cells is increasingly used by emergency medical services (EMS). However, evidence on the effects on outcomes is scarce. PubMed and Web of Science were searched through January 2019; 55 articles were included. No randomised controlled studies were identified. While several observational studies suggest an increased survival after PHTRBC, consistent evidence for beneficial effects of PHTRBC on survival was not found. PHTRBC appears to improve haemodynamic parameters, but there is no evidence that shock on arrival to hospital is averted, nor of an association with trauma induced coagulopathy or with length of stay in hospitals or intensive care units. In conclusion, PHTRBC is increasingly used by EMS, but there is no strong evidence for effects of PHTRBC on mortality. Further research with study designs that allow causal inferences is required for more conclusive evidence. The combination of PHTRBC with plasma, as well as the use of individualised transfusion criteria, may potentially show more benefits and should be thoroughly investigated in the future. The review was registered at Prospero (CRD42018084658).
KW - damage control resuscitation
KW - emergency medical service
KW - major haemorrhage
KW - mortality
KW - outcome
KW - prehospital transfusion
KW - red blood cells
UR - https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?partnerID=HzOxMe3b&scp=85077911487&origin=inward
UR - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31903684
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85077911487&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1111/tme.12659
DO - https://doi.org/10.1111/tme.12659
M3 - Review article
C2 - 31903684
SN - 0958-7578
VL - 30
SP - 106
EP - 133
JO - Transfusion medicine (Oxford, England)
JF - Transfusion medicine (Oxford, England)
IS - 2
ER -