“By improving oxygen transport to the brain during the acute phase of care , it may be possible to save more nerve cells in the days following a TBI , thereby preventing additional brain damage .”
After Major Traumatic Brain Injury , More Blood Transfusions Could Mean Better Outcomes
“By improving oxygen transport to the brain during the acute phase of care , it may be possible to save more nerve cells in the days following a TBI , thereby preventing additional brain damage .”
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Increased use of blood transfusions after major traumatic brain injury could help people hospitalized in intensive care units regain greater functional independence and a better quality of life .
Six months after a major traumatic brain injury ( TBI ), patients who benefited from this approach regained more functional independence and had a better quality of life than those subjected to a more restrictive approach , even though the combined incidence of death and major disability was not significantly different between the two treatment groups .
This is the conclusion of an international research team led by Alexis Turgeon , professor at Université Laval , Canada Research Chair in Neurological Critical Care and Trauma , critical care physician and researcher at CHU de Québec-Université Laval , whose work is published today in the New England Journal of Medicine .
“ This randomized clinical trial , initiated in 2017 , was carried out in 34 hospital centres in Canada , the United Kingdom , France and Brazil . Its aim was to compare two blood transfusion strategies -- one so-called restrictive and the other liberal -- employed to care for people hospitalized in an intensive care unit following a TBI . These approaches differ in the degree of anemia , or the minimum hemoglobin concentration that must be present in patients ’ blood before a blood transfusion can be given ,” explains Professor Turgeon .
“ The hemoglobin enables red blood cells to