Patient blood management

[8][9] During a session of the World Health Assembly in 2010, the resolution WHA63.12 was adopted, which included recommendations on the safety and availability of blood components.

PBM initially consisted of pharmacological and non-pharmacological techniques, to be adopted before, during, and after surgery, to prevent the patient from arriving in the operating room in a condition of anemia.

[13][14][15] Patient blood management in the perioperative setting can be achieved by means of a variety of techniques and strategies.

For example, electrocautery, which is a technique utilized for surgical dissection, removal of soft tissue and sealing blood vessels, can be applied to a variety of procedures.

[8] Early identification and correction of anemia in pregnant women may also reduce the need for blood transfusions.

Published in 2017, a retrospective observational study in four major adult tertiary-care hospitals concluded that implementation of a unique, jurisdiction-wide PBM program was associated with improved patient outcomes, reduced blood product utilization, and product-related cost savings.

Also, current medical literature shows that in most circumstances a restrictive threshold is as safe as a more liberal red cell transfusion threshold and in certain circumstances, for example gastrointestinal bleeding due to liver disease, a more liberal red cell transfusion strategy may be harmful.

[37][38] The more blood that is transfused directly impacts hospital expenditures, and it behooves administrators to search for ways to reduce this cost.

This increasing cost of transfusions is the reason many hospital administrators are endeavoring to establish blood management programs.