Tag Archives: transfusions
An Evaluation of Clinical Factors Associated with the Decision to Transfuse Chronic Dialysis Patients
Cynthia Whitman
Research Coordinator for the UCLA/VA Center for Outcomes Research and Education.
Hemodialysis.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Cynthia Whitman: The main findings of our study include:
- Among 10 patient clinical attributes studied, hemoglobin (Hb) level was found to be the most important for driving provider decision-making regarding red blood cell transfusions in CKD patients, however this attribute alone does not inform providers enough for them to base their decisions.
- 92% of providers transfused when Hb was 7.5 g/dL.
- In multivariable regression, we found Veterans Administration providers 6 times as likely to transfuse earlier at 8.0 g/dL, than others.
- The more experienced providers had (at least 20 years) and the more exposure they had to patients, the more selective they were about using transfusions in CKD patients, and the more likely they were to require the patients to exhibit more serious clinical characteristics such as iron repletion.
Marie Benz, MD on Google+
