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Liberal Versus Restrictive Transfusion Strategy in Critically Ill Oncologic Patients: The Transfusion Requirements in Critically Ill Oncologic Patients Randomized Controlled Trial.
Crit Care Med. 2017 May;45(5):766-773
Authors: Bergamin FS, Almeida JP, Landoni G, Galas FRBG, Fukushima JT, Fominskiy E, Park CHL, Osawa EA, Diz MPE, Oliveira GQ, Franco RA, Nakamura RE, Almeida EM, Abdala E, Freire MP, Filho RK, Auler JOC, Hajjar LA
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To assess whether a restrictive strategy of RBC transfusion reduces 28-day mortality when compared with a liberal strategy in cancer patients with septic shock.
DESIGN: Single center, randomized, double-blind controlled trial.
SETTING: Teaching hospital.
PATIENTS: Adult cancer patients with septic shock in the first 6 hours of ICU admission.
INTERVENTIONS: Patients were randomized to the liberal (hemoglobin threshold, < 9 g/dL) or to the restrictive strategy (hemoglobin threshold, < 7 g/dL) of RBC transfusion during ICU stay.
MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Patients were randomized to the liberal (n = 149) or to the restrictive transfusion strategy (n = 151) group. Patients in the liberal group received more RBC units than patients in the restrictive group (1 [0-3] vs 0 [0-2] unit; p < 0.001). At 28 days after randomization, mortality rate in the liberal group (primary endpoint of the study) was 45% (67 patients) versus 56% (84 patients) in the restrictive group (hazard ratio, 0.74; 95% CI, 0.53-1.04; p = 0.08) with no differences in ICU and hospital length of stay. At 90 days after randomization, mortality rate in the liberal group was lower (59% vs 70%) than in the restrictive group (hazard ratio, 0.72; 95% CI, 0.53-0.97; p = 0.03).
CONCLUSIONS: We observed a survival trend favoring a liberal transfusion strategy in patients with septic shock when compared with the restrictive strategy. These results went in the opposite direction of the a priori hypothesis and of other trials in the field and need to be confirmed.
PMID: 28240687 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]