PRBC Blood Gas

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Aether2000

algosdoc
20+ Year Member
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From a Reddit posting, just for fun, they did a blood gas on a PRBC sample.
Screen Shot 2020-09-14 at 10.36.22 AM.png
 
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This is the patient....

View attachment 318290
He dead?
Oh ok. I get it now. Didn’t pay attention to the source.
I see some pretty severe numbers working with Covid patients so this isn’t that strange.
But yeah @SaltyDog , I am the dumbest rock out there.
We know your IQ and disgusting sexist lockeroom jokes are way off the charts.
 
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It makes me ponder the effects of rapid infusion of >1 of these units of quite acidic, hyperkalemic PRBCs.

We do it all the time in the OR. We don't transfuse just the fresh PRBCs, in fact blood bank tries to get rid of the older ones. So while the labs look very abnormal for PRBC (new or old) the clinical relevance doesn't seem so significant.
 
It makes me ponder the effects of rapid infusion of >1 of these units of quite acidic, hyperkalemic PRBCs.

Had an intraop death in residency that I wondered if it was related to old blood transfusion. VATS/decort for a mesothelioma pt, lots of suctioning noises, surgeon pulls the old "it's all old blood" card, pressure sags, pt was already anemic (8ish?), so started transfusing, QRS widened and went into VF, ACLS, eventually got back, lost again, never recovered. Wish we had an ABG right before things crumped but it was after the code started and looked like trash. Obviously acidotic and hyperkalemic. Could have been under-resuscitation leading to the code, but don't remember the hemodynamics being that deranged. Always wondered if that first bag of PRBC was one of those with like a K+ of 13 and that just tipped them over the edge.
 
It's called storage lesion guys... We get VIVA'd on it all the time in Australia. It's the worst. :vomit:

For those wondering: The K+ goes a lot higher than 13. It's ~30mmol/L at 28 days. That's why you ring the lab and ask for fresh stuff if it's an acidotic, hyperkalaemic patient on the precipice.
 
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It does appear to have some degree of hemolysis.
We transfuse A LOT in our hospital and we see hyperkalemia from transfusion At times. Even when you use the cell saver, you must expect it.
 
Not surprised to see others say K can get a lot higher than 8.

This is why you should asked for washed RBCs or RBCs less than 5 days old in certain pts (small children, severe liver dz) as washing lowers the K and lactate.
 
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Love it, great thread from one ABG. I’ve only seen hyper K in massive transfusion, 10+ units. But definitely will be more cautious now hearing some other people’s experience.
 
Also, I’ve done a case with massive transfusion where we washed all the PRBCs with the cell saver, K never moved from around 4 the whole time