Latest blood transfusions Stories
IRVINE, Calif., April 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- A new blood transfusion cost analysis study published in the April 2010 issue of Transfusion, a peer-reviewed academic journal, shows that when all of the complex cost factors leading up to and after a red blood cell (RBC) transfusion are considered, the actual cost of blood is substantially higher than previously estimated. With actual blood transfusion costs ranging between $522 and $1,183 per-unit--37% higher than estimated by prior...
Blood transfusions for hospitalized cardiac patients should be a last resort because they double the risk of infection, U.S. researchers found. The study, published in BMC Medicine, found the risk of death following cardiac blood transfusions increased four-fold. The analysis of 30-day outcomes for nearly 25,000 Medicare coronary artery bypass graft surgery patients from 2003-2006 in 40 Michigan hospitals found transfusion practices vary substantially among hospitals. Study co-author Dr....
A new study suggests that blood transfusions for hospitalized cardiac patients should be a last resort because they double the risk of infection and increase by four times the risk of death.The analysis of nearly 25,000 Medicare patients in Michigan also showed that transfusion practices after heart surgery varied substantially among hospitals, a red flag that plays into the health care reform debate.A wide variation in care is a hot-button issue, as lawmakers and health reform experts...
A study of almost 25,000 coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) patients has shown that receiving blood from another person is associated with a two-fold increase in post-operative infection rates. The research, published in the open access journal BMC Medicine, also found considerable hospital variation in transfusion practices.Mary Rogers, from the University of Michigan, USA, led a team of researchers who carried out the study. She said, "Clearly, blood transfusions are vital in the...
A group of U.S. hospitals and medical centers this week will begin collectively tracking dangerous reactions to blood transfusions, officials said. The Baltimore Sun reported Sunday that among hospitals taking part in the so-called biovigilance program is Johns Hopkins Hospital. The program is aimed at reducing the number of infections, allergic reactions, clerical errors and other complications related to blood transfusions. The newspaper noted such complications last year claimed 46 lives...
By Terri Theodore, THE CANADIAN PRESS VANCOUVER - A B.C. court says a child's right to life trumps a parent's charter right to guide their medical treatment in the case of four sextuplets taken from their Jehovah's Witness parents. B.C. Supreme Chief Justice Donald Brenner has ruled that seizing the four surviving infants to administer blood transfusions, contrary to their parents' religious beliefs, was medically necessary. "It is difficult to see how the charter rights of the parents,...
RARITAN, N.J., Dec. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics, a Johnson & Johnson company, announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has licensed its new test designed to screen blood donations for exposure to Chagas' disease -- a tropical, parasitic disease that originates in South America. Called the ORTHO(R) T.cruzi ELISA Test System, it is the first blood-screening test for Chagas' disease approved by the FDA for use in the United States. "Data reported over...
By Nelson Graves TURIN (Reuters) - They call it blood on feet. You are an Olympic athlete. You bring a friend to the Games. The friend donates blood. You inject it, it increases your oxygen-rich red blood cells and you perform better. A simple procedure that requires no drugs -- but which is banned under world sports rules and which can be deadly. The discovery of needles and a blood transfusion kit in the Austrian biathlon and cross-country team bases last weekend has trained a...
By Ben Blanchard BEIJING (Reuters) - Blood for transfusions in China is still not routinely tested for HIV/AIDS despite a legal requirement to do so, triggering a "hidden epidemic," an AIDS activist said on Tuesday. The health ministry should offer free HIV tests to all people who have received blood transfusions since 1987 -- about the time that AIDS first appeared in the country -- together with their relatives, said Wan Yanhai, head of the Beijing Aizhixing Institute of Health...
By Ben BlanchardBEIJING (Reuters) - Blood for transfusions in China is still not routinely tested for HIV/AIDS despite a legal requirement to do so, triggering a "hidden epidemic," an AIDS activist said on Tuesday.The health ministry should offer free HIV tests to all people who have received blood transfusions since 1987 -- about the time that AIDS first appeared in the country -- together with their relatives, said Wan Yanhai, head of the Beijing Aizhixing Institute of Health...
