Editor's Note The Food & Drug Administration on December 4 updated a draft guidance that promotes the development and adoption of innovations to ensure continued safety of the US blood supply. The draft guidance entitled, “Bacterial risk control strategies for blood collection establishments and transfusion services to enhance the safety…

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Editor's Note In cardiac surgery patients at moderate-to-high risk for death, a restrictive strategy for red blood cell (RBC) transfusion was equivalent to a liberal strategy, with respect to death from any cause, myocardial infarction, stroke, or renal failure, at 6-months follow-up, this study finds. There also were no significant…

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Editor's Note In this study, perioperative red blood cell (RBC) transfusions were significantly associated with development of new or progressive postoperative venous thromboembolism (VTE) within 30 days of a surgical procedure. Of 750,937 patients included in the analysis, 47,410 (6.3%) received at lest one perioperative RBC transfusion. Of these, 6,309…

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Editor's Note A restrictive blood transfusion strategy (HGB <7.5 g/dL) was equivalent to a liberal strategy (HGB <9.5 g/dL in the OR or ICU and HGB<8.5 g/dL in the non-ICU ward) with regard to mortality and major disability in cardiac surgery patients who had a moderate-to-high risk of death, this…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on November 8 announced the update of its Patient Blood Management standards to align with AABB standards. Among the changes: educational requirements for those who order and/or transfuse blood defined guidelines on transfusion orders procedures for emergent/urgent patients, including massive blood loss intraoperative methods for…

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Editor's Note Hospitals managing the highest volume of deceased organ donors were 52% more likely to recover an above-average number of transplantable organs per donor than low-volume hospitals in this study. The study included data from 4,427 donors across 384 hospitals. High-volume hospitals had an organ yield (ie, rate of…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on March 1 released new guidelines to prevent the transmission of the Zika virus from human cells, tissues, and cellular and tissue-based products. The guidance addresses both living and deceased donations of corneas, bone, skin, heart valves, hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells, gestational tissues…

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More than 120 centers throughout the US have bloodless surgery programs to serve patients who refuse blood transfusions for religious and other reasons. The practice, which began more than 50 years ago, has evolved through research on blood conservation and new techniques to minimize the need for transfusions. The Joint…

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When your OR is selecting allograft tissue, how do you know which federal regulations govern their safety? The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) uses a tiered approach to regulating these materials, explains Scott Brubaker, CTBS, chief policy officer for the American Association of Tissue Banks (AATB). Minimally processed tissue…

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To our readers, Chips, pastes, putties, gels, powders, wedges, DBM, BMP, and assorted kits—the list of bone allografts and substitutes is long and confusing. These biologic materials have a big impact on the OR budget, but they are more than just another line of surgical supplies. Biologics originate with a…

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