30 May 2020 (Saturday) - BTLP-TACT Excercise

Well… it is seventeen days since I last did a BTLP-TACT exercise so I had better get busy…

I was presented with one case – an eighty-year old woman requiring group and save prior to a hysterectomy.

She grouped as A Rh(D) Positive with a negative antibody screen.

I got the green light…

29 May 2020 (Friday) - Transfusion Evidence Library Update

The nice people at the Transfusion Evidence Library sent their missive today. Finally we are moving back to updates which are about more than just the ongoing pandemic:

ARTICLE OF THE MONTH The benefits of iron supplementation following blood donation vary with baseline iron status AE Mast,, et al.Am J Hematol PICO Summary available

TOP ARTICLES Regular bleeding risk assessment associated with reduction in bleeding outcomes: The mAFA II randomised trial Y Guo, et al, Am J Med 2020 PICO Summary IVMP+IVIG raises platelet counts faster than IVIG alone: results of a randomized, blinded trial in childhood ITP M Carcao, et al. Blood Adv 2020 PICO Summary Practical Considerations for a Military Whole Blood Program M Bahr, et al. Mil Med 2020 PICO Summary Iron Chelation in Transfusion-Dependent Patients With Low- to Intermediate-1-Risk Myelodysplastic Syndromes: A Randomized Trial E Angelucci, et al. Ann Intern Med 2020 PICO Summary Interventions for preventing silent cerebral infarcts in people with sickle cell disease LJ Estcourt, et al. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2020 PICO Summary Efficacy of quadruple treatment on different types of pre-operative anaemia: secondary analysis of a randomised controlled trial J Rossler, et al. Anaesthesia 2020 PICO Summary Effective methods for reactivating inactive blood donors: a stratified randomised controlled study J Ou-Yang, et al. BMC Public Health 2020 PICO Summary Tranexamic acid is associated with reduced mortality, hemorrhagic expansion, and vascular occlusive events in traumatic brain injury - meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials J July and R Pranata. BMC Neurol 2020 PICO Summary Efficacy of intraoperative cell salvage in spine surgery: a meta-analysis J Cheriyan, et al. J Neurosurg Spine 2020 PICO Summary The role of platelet transfusions after intracranial hemorrhage in patients on antiplatelet agents: a systematic review and meta-analysis E Brogi, et al. World Neurosurg 2020 PICO Summary

28 May 2020 (Thursday) - UKAS Update

The nice people at UKAS sent their newsletter today. Apparently they have set some standards for COVID-19 testing. Reading the newspapers it would seem that anyone who wants to test for the stuff has just been having a go up till now.

Perhaps this might be a move for the better?

28/ May 2020 (Thursday) - Transfusion News Update

The Transfusion News talks about the use of convalescent plasma for the treatment of patients with COVID-19… We’ve started stocking the stuff.

Perhaps COVID-19 *is* more relevant to me than I thought?

Convalescent Plasma Decreases Mortality for Non-Intubated Patients with Severe COVID-19

May 27, 2020 Based on a preliminary propensity score-matched control study, convalescent plasma is beneficial for non-intubated patients with severe COVID-19. At the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, 39 hospitalized patients (average age, 55 years; 64% male) with severe to life-threatening COVID-19 were transfused with [Read More]

Convalescent Plasma for COVID-19 Safe in First 5,000 Patients

May 19, 2020 With limited therapies for patients with COVID-19 and a mortality rate of approximately 50% for patients in the ICU, demand is high for convalescent plasma from individuals who have recovered from COVID-19. Convalescent plasma has been requested for [Read More]

26 May 2020 (Tuesday) - Slacking ?

I haven’t been posting as much as I usually do on here… How I collate my CPD is I subscribe to pretty much every work/science-related mailing list in the known universe. I put all the emails into one folder, and a couple of times a week I weed through the list. “Weed” being a rather good description as I usually delete ten articles that I am sent for every one I remark about on here.

At the moment pretty much everything is about COVID-19. Which isn’t *that* relevant to what I do…

I mention this because if I am called up for audit next year I don’t want anyone to think I’m slacking…

21 May 2020 (Thursday) - Chemotherapy's Toxicity

“The Oncologist” newsletter appeared today. One article caught my eye. Predicting the toxicity of chemotherapy… Chemotherapy isn’t nice stuff; is it going to do more harm than good?

20 May 2020 (Wednesday) - Mild Bleeding Disorders

Here’s an interesting article – the investigation of mild bleeding disorders. Laboratory findings *aren’t* the be-all and end-all of the matter…