OBJECTIVE To discover the effects of the lowest hematocrit during cardiopulmonary bypass on end-organ function and mortality in patients who did not receive red blood cell transfusion and to identify predictors of nadir hematocrit. METHODS From November 1, 2004, to October 1, 2009, 7957 patients underwent cardiac surgery supported by cardiopulmonary bypass and were not transfused. The relatio...

BACKGROUND The efficacy of saline-coupled bipolar sealing devices in joint arthroplasty is uncertain, and the utility in simultaneous bilateral total knee arthroplasty (TKA) has not been reported. METHODS This study compares the use of bipolar sealing and conventional electrocautery in 71 consecutive patients. The experimental and control groups were matched for age, sex, body mass index, Ame...

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study is to identify the risk factors for postoperative hypoxemia in patients with Stanford A aortic dissection surgery and their relation to clinical outcomes. METHODS Clinical records of 186 patients with postoperative hypoxemia in Stanford A aortic dissection were analyzed retrospectively. The patients were divided into two groups by postoperative oxygen frac...

BACKGROUND Transfusion-transmitted Chagas disease has been reported from endemic countries in Latin America. Switzerland is a non-endemic country but high prevalence of antibodies against Trypanosoma cruzi was found among immigrants. Immigrants may participate in blood donation; therefore, risk-adapted anti-T. cruzi screening for blood donors was implemented in Switzerland in 2013. METHODS Be...

PURPOSE The prevalence of gastric cancer in the elderly is increasing. The purpose of this study was to clarify factors related to morbidity following gastric cancer surgery in elderly patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS For this study, data from 411 patients who underwent curative gastrectomies with lymph node dissections between March 2010 and January 2013 were retrospectively studied using a p...

OBJECTIVE To assess rational use of blood and blood products in adults treated in surgical and allied departments in a public and a private hospital in Islamabad. METHODS The comparative cross-sectional study was conducted from April 15 to June 15, 2011, in Islamabad. A total of 350 patients were enrolled using universal sampling; 170 (48%) from the public and 180 (52%) from the private hospi...

BACKGROUND Studies evaluating the effect of erythromycin on patients with acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding (UGIB) had been reported, but the results were inconclusive. AIMS To compare erythromycin with control in patients with acute UGIB by performing a meta-analysis. METHODS Electronic databases including PubMed, EMBASE and the Cochrane Library, Science Citation Index, were searched t...

The terminal complement inhibitor eculizumab has become the standard of treatment in patients with symptomatic paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH). In this retrospective study, 19 PNH patients received chronic therapy with eculizumab with a median duration of 16 months (range 6-46 months). Parameters of hemolysis, transfusion requirements, and serum iron parameters were analyzed. Lactate ...

OBJECTIVE Day hospitals are an alternative to conventional hospital care. We analyzed the functioning and profitability of the day hospital of Hospital Clínico de Valladolid, Spain, in 2009. Profitability is expressed as the provision of identical health coverage at a lower cost than that generated by conventional hospital care and with adequate quality indicators. METHODS We performed a retr...

The discovery of HIV and other transfusion-transmissible infections has increased the demand for alternatives to allogeneic blood transfusion. One such alternative is autologous transfusion. This review presents an analysis of autologous transfusion. We conclude that autologous transfusion should form part of a strategy to minimise the risk associated with allogeneic transfusion in Nigeria and ...