Older Red Blood Cells Pose Risks for Children

If the study findings are reproducible, they may have a significant impact on patients and blood banks, but the topic needs to be studied further before changes are made in current clinical practice.

In a recent study of adult cardiac surgery patients, patients who received transfusions of packed red blood cells more than 7 days old had higher rates of many complications than did those who received fresher cells (N. Engl. J. Med. 2008;358:1229–39).

At our center, we have adopted a strategy of less-frequent transfusions for our pediatric cardiac surgery patients, although we have not specified the age of the packed red blood cells.