25 June 2026 (Thursday) - Transfusion Evidence Library

The nice people at the Transfusion Evidence Library sent their update today. A couple of articles caught my eye…

The use of blood transfusions in trauma cases before hospital admission didn’t seem to have much of an effect on final outcome… I suppose that if someone is in such desperate need of a transfusion that we can skip all of the safety protocols they aren’t going to be likely to survive the trauma.

But what really made me think was the article about the transportation and large-scale long-distance airdrops of blood. These days we document every single thing that every happens to a unit of blood. Back in the day things weren’t quite so tight… it would seem that things weren’t as bad then as we’ve now been led to believe…

ARTICLE OF THE MONTH

Prehospital resuscitation with type O whole blood for trauma and hemorrhage.
Sperry, J.L., et al. (2026). The New England Journal of Medicine.
PICO SUMMARY

 

 

TOP ARTICLES

Early erythropoiesis-stimulating agents in preterm or low-birthweight infants.
Anarna, K., et al. (2026). The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.

Clinical outcomes of intravenous albumin administration after acute variceal hemorrhage in patients with cirrhosis: an open-label, randomized controlled trial.
Biswas, S., et al. (2026). Digestive Diseases and Sciences.

Platelet transfusion thresholds for thrombocytopenic infants.
Chotas, W., et al. (2026). The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.

A prospective, randomized, multicenter trial comparing lactated Ringer's alone or with 5% albumin for resuscitation of large burns The Acute Burn ResUscitation Multicenter Prospective Trial 2 (ABRUPT2).
Greenhalgh, D.G., et al. (2026). Annals of Surgery. [Record in progress].

The clinical use of cryoprecipitate and fibrinogen concentrate: a scoping review.
Hess, A.S., et al. (2026). Transfusion. [Record in progress].

Convalescent plasma for people with COVID-19.
Iannizzi, C., et al. (2026). The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.

Thromboelastography (TEG) or thromboelastometry (ROTEM) to monitor haemostatic treatment versus usual care in adults or children with bleeding.
Kvisselgaard, A.D., et al. (2026). The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.

A study on the impact of blood large-scale long-distance airdrop on storage quality of suspended red blood cells.
Liu, L., et al. (2026). Transfusion. [Record in progress].

Efficacy and safety of albumin combined with endovascular therapy in the treatment of patients with acute ischemic stroke: a randomized clinical trial.
Liu, Y., et al. (2026). Nature Communications.

Approaches to guide red blood cell transfusion in patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Pinedo-Avila, J.B., et al. (2026). Journal of Intensive Care Medicine. [Record in progress].

Impact of Rh five-antigen-matched transfusion on alloimmunization and clinical outcomes in patients requiring repeated red blood cell transfusions: a prospective randomized controlled study.
Xie, X., et al. (2026). Frontiers in Medicine.

Prophylactic tranexamic acid for the prevention of postpartum haemorrhage in women with placenta praevia: multicentre, double blind, randomised, placebo controlled, phase 3 trial.
Zhang, L., et al. (2026). BMJ.