TY - JOUR
T1 - Timing and incidence of postoperative infections associated with blood transfusion
T2 - Analysis of 1,489 orthopedic and cardiac surgery patients
AU - Shander, Aryeh
AU - Spence, Richard K.
AU - Adams, David
AU - Shore-Lesserson, Linda
AU - Walawander, Cynthia A.
PY - 2009/6/1
Y1 - 2009/6/1
N2 - Background: Transfusion rates remain high in cardiac and orthopedic surgery and differ widely across physician practices in spite of growing knowledge that allogeneic blood transfusion (ABT) is associated with a risk of postoperative infection. Methods: This prospective observational study compared the timing and incidence of ABT-associated postoperative infections (PIs) in 1,489 orthopedic or cardiac surgery patients at nine hospitals. Results: Of 455 cardiovascular and 1,034 orthopedic surgery patients, 415 (55.6% of the cardiovascular patients and 15.7% of the orthopedic patients) were given ABT. The overall rate of PI during hospitalization was 5.8%. The relative risk of PI was 3.6-fold greater after ABT (50 patients; 12.1%) than in patients not having ABT (36 patients; 3.4%; 95% confidence interval 2.4, 5.4; p = 0.001). Postoperative infections appeared both during hospitalization (n = 86) and within four weeks after discharge (n = 81). Conclusions: Patients should be followed for as long as four weeks after discharge to determine the true incidence and risk of ABT-associated PI.
AB - Background: Transfusion rates remain high in cardiac and orthopedic surgery and differ widely across physician practices in spite of growing knowledge that allogeneic blood transfusion (ABT) is associated with a risk of postoperative infection. Methods: This prospective observational study compared the timing and incidence of ABT-associated postoperative infections (PIs) in 1,489 orthopedic or cardiac surgery patients at nine hospitals. Results: Of 455 cardiovascular and 1,034 orthopedic surgery patients, 415 (55.6% of the cardiovascular patients and 15.7% of the orthopedic patients) were given ABT. The overall rate of PI during hospitalization was 5.8%. The relative risk of PI was 3.6-fold greater after ABT (50 patients; 12.1%) than in patients not having ABT (36 patients; 3.4%; 95% confidence interval 2.4, 5.4; p = 0.001). Postoperative infections appeared both during hospitalization (n = 86) and within four weeks after discharge (n = 81). Conclusions: Patients should be followed for as long as four weeks after discharge to determine the true incidence and risk of ABT-associated PI.
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U2 - 10.1089/sur.2007.055
DO - 10.1089/sur.2007.055
M3 - Article
C2 - 19566415
AN - SCOPUS:67651097691
SN - 1096-2964
VL - 10
SP - 277
EP - 283
JO - Surgical Infections
JF - Surgical Infections
IS - 3
ER -