Hospital acquired anemia: the contribution of diagnostic blood loss.
J Thromb Haemost. 2015 Feb 28;
Authors: van der Bom JA, Cannegieter SC
Abstract
Depending on the number of days at the intensive care, the majority of critically ill patients develop anemia.[1] It is frequently assumed that diagnostic blood loss has substantial impact on the occurrence of hospital acquired anemia, which is therefore also occasionally referred to as iatrogenic anemia.[2][3][4] In this issue of the Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis Coene et al report transfusion requirements and discharge hemoglobin (Hb) levels of intensive care patients after the implementation of a strategy to reduce diagnostic blood loss.(Coene this issue) The strategy comprised the use of low volume blood collection tubes and standardization of methods for blood collection from central lines and for glucose measurements. Implementation of this strategy was associated with a considerable reduction of total daily diagnostic blood loss, i.e. of 25 percent. However, this reduction in diagnostic blood loss led only to a 0.3 g/dL (0.2 mmol/l) higher Hb concentration at discharge of the intensive care unit. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
PMID: 25728523 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]