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Annals of Intensive Care

Table 3 Restrictive versus liberal red blood cell (RBC) transfusion strategy in cardiac patients: randomized clinical trials

From: Anemia and red blood cell transfusion in critically ill cardiac patients

  Health problem Patients Mortalityb  
First author, yeara   (n) (95% CI) P-value
Adults     
 Bracey, 1999 [73] CABG 428 RR: 0.52 (0.13 to 2.04) NS
 Carson, 2011 [74] Hip surgeryc 2,016 ARR: 0.9 (−1.5 to +3.4) NS
 Cooper, 2001 [52] Myocardial infarction 46 8% versus 5% 1.0
 Hajjar, 2012 [23] Cardiac surgery 502 6% versus 5% 0.93
 Hébert, 2001 [75] ICU cardiac patients 357 22.5% versus 22.7% 1.00
 Johnson, 1992 [76] CABG 38 No differenced NS
 Shehata, 2012 [19] Cardiac surgery 50 16% versus 4% NS
Pediatric cardiac surgery     
 Cholette, 2011 [77] Cyanotic 60 1 death NS
 de Gast-Bakker, 2013 [78] Non-cyanotic 107 No death NS
 Willems, 2010 [79] Non-cyanotic 125 12.7% versus 6.5% 0.36
  1. ARR: absolute risk reduction; CABG: coronary artery bypass graft; CI: confidence interval; RBC: red blood cell; NS: not statistically significant.
  2. aYear of publication.
  3. bRestrictive versus liberal transfusion strategy.
  4. cHip surgery in patients older than 50 years with atherosclerosis.
  5. dNo significant difference in duration or degree of exercise was demonstrated between the two groups.
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