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Does anyone have any good info on risk of thrombosis with transfusions?
Risk of thrombosis
- Thread starter meerkat111
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In what clinical setting?
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One of ouroncologist was asking if there are any guidelines for this in the inpatient setting. While I found some papers written on increased risk in cancer patients, I have not found any specific guidelines.
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I would go with that. Makes sense a cancer doctor would be interested i. That population.
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Why did the oncologist ask you? Was he pimping you? If so...f*** him.
Most of the data out there related to increased thrombosis risk in pRBC transfusion is in relation to post-CABG and post-vascular graft/stent/bypass patients. In that population, the increased thrombosis risk seems to be somewhere between 1.5x and 5x (depending on how small and poorly designed the study was).
In the setting of a patient with an active solid tumor (pre-resection for curable disease or with metastatic disease), the risk of thrombosis from the cancer itself ranges from 10-30% of patients with cancer, depending on the type of cancer. The overall risk of a VTE (in the US anyway) is ~8/100K/yr. The incidence rate of "cancer" in adults in the US is 454/100K/y. Assume that number is 500/100K and that they develop VTE at a rate of 10% (because I'm lazy).
If you do a bunch of back of the envelope math on this, the risk of VTE just from having "cancer" is ~50/100K/yr, 6-7x the baseline rate of the population as a whole. So even in the worst case scenario in the VTE transfusion literature, cancer in and of itself is a much bigger issue.
So, short answer, no. Long answer...if they have cancer, giving them a unit or 3 of blood is not going to increase their VTE risk any more than the cancer itself already has.
Most of the data out there related to increased thrombosis risk in pRBC transfusion is in relation to post-CABG and post-vascular graft/stent/bypass patients. In that population, the increased thrombosis risk seems to be somewhere between 1.5x and 5x (depending on how small and poorly designed the study was).
In the setting of a patient with an active solid tumor (pre-resection for curable disease or with metastatic disease), the risk of thrombosis from the cancer itself ranges from 10-30% of patients with cancer, depending on the type of cancer. The overall risk of a VTE (in the US anyway) is ~8/100K/yr. The incidence rate of "cancer" in adults in the US is 454/100K/y. Assume that number is 500/100K and that they develop VTE at a rate of 10% (because I'm lazy).
If you do a bunch of back of the envelope math on this, the risk of VTE just from having "cancer" is ~50/100K/yr, 6-7x the baseline rate of the population as a whole. So even in the worst case scenario in the VTE transfusion literature, cancer in and of itself is a much bigger issue.
So, short answer, no. Long answer...if they have cancer, giving them a unit or 3 of blood is not going to increase their VTE risk any more than the cancer itself already has.
