Guidelines for red blood cell and plasma transfusion for adults and children.

Objective: To provide broad guidelines and principles to help physicians, other health care workers and patients make decisions about the appropriateness of red blood cell and plasma transfusion. Options: These guidelines are limited to red blood cell and plasma transfusion in adults and children over 4 months of age. Indications for specific clinical conditions and specialized blood components are not addressed. Options considered included appropriate use of allogeneic and autologous transfusion and substituting non-blood