Description
Increasing awareness of complications associated with blood transfusion over recent years have combined with studies showing no adverse effects of moderate anaemia in critical illness on physiology or outcome. This has lead to a re-evaluation of the risk/benefit ratio of transfusion of allogenic blood products in both the short term and long term. The purpose of this review is to quantify these risks and the benefits of transfusion, to describe the efforts made to improve the safety of blood and blood component transfusion and describe the currently available methods of reducing the use of allogenic blood in surgical practice.
