Indications for and Adverse Effects of Red-Cell Transfusion

Advances in clinical research have led to reduced use of blood products. Judicious use has reduced the incidence of lung injury and circulatory overload. Testing of blood products for infectious agents has reduced their transmission.

Disclosure forms provided by the authors are available with the full text of this article at NEJM.org.

Dr. Carson reports receiving grant support from Terumo BCT; Dr. Triulzi, receiving advisory board fees from Carmell and Fresenius Kabi and fees for serving on a data and safety monitoring board from Cerus Corporation; Dr. Ness, receiving fees for serving as scientific advisor from Terumo BCT and New Health Sciences. No other potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.

We thank Dr. Barbee Whitaker of the AABB Center for Patient Safety for providing data on red-cell supplies and transfusion rates.
Source Information

From the Department of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ ( J.L.C.); the Division of Transfusion Medicine, Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh (D.J.T.); and the Department of Pathology, Division of Transfusion Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore (P.M.N.).

Address reprint requests to Dr. Carson at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, 125 Paterson St., New Brunswick, NJ 08901, or at [email protected].