BOSTON—Results of a pilot program suggest preoperative management of anemia can reduce transfusion rates and cut costs, but the effect on patient outcomes isn’t clear.

For this program, anemic patients received dietary guidance and supplementation prior to surgery.

This increased day-of-surgery hemoglobin levels, reduced intraoperative and postoperative transfusions, and resulted in a cost savings of more than $100,000 over the life of the program.

Christine M. Cahill, BSN, MS, RN, of the University of Rochester and Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, New York, presented these results at AABB 2018 (abstract PBM4-ST4-22*).

“Anemia has been thought of as a relatively benign thing our patients live with, traditionally, but what we have been finding lately is that anemia is actually more serious than we once thought and is an independent risk factor for hospitalization, readmission, increased patient length of stay, loss of function, and diminished quality of life,” Cahill said.

She added that anemia also increases the likelihood that a patient will require transfusions.

The pilot program was implemented with this in mind. The program, which ran from February 2016 through September 2017, was designed to test the feasibility of diagnosing anemia during a cardiology consult visit and implementing an anemia management plan.

During the study period, 240 patients presenting for elective cardiac surgery were screened for anemia, and 58 were diagnosed as anemic (hemoglobin <12 g/dL). These patients were referred for anemia workups, which showed that 33 patients had iron-deficiency anemia, and 25 had anemia from other causes.

Preoperative anemia management for the iron-deficient patients included oral iron for seven patients, intravenous (IV) iron with or without folate for 20 patients, and oral folate with or without vitamin B12 for five patients. One iron-deficient patient could not have surgery delayed for anemia management.

Of the iron-replete patients, one received oral iron, 17 received folate with or without B12, and seven patients were not treated for anemia.

One iron-deficient patient had a reaction to the infusion and did not receive a scheduled second dose due to the need for immediate surgery. A second patient scheduled for IV iron and folate broke an arm and therefore missed an IV infusion appointment. No other complications or reactions occurred.

Results

The researchers compared the 58 patients from the pilot program to control subjects—patients who underwent cardiac surgery from March through July 2015, matched by age, sex, and procedures.

The anemia management group received 10 red blood cell (RBC) units intraoperatively, compared to 68 intraoperative RBC units for controls. The total number of postoperative RBC units was 13 and 22, respectively.

The rate of RBC transfusions was 24% in the anemia management group and 60% in controls (P<0.0001). The average RBC units per patient was 0.4 and 2.07, respectively (P<0.0001).

Patients in the anemia management program also had significantly higher day-of-surgery hemoglobin than controls—11.01 and 10.16 g/dL, respectively (P<0.001).

The program provided an average per-patient savings in acquisition costs of $367.40, an average transfusion cost savings of $1,837, and a total cost savings of $106,546 over the life of the program.

The key to success of a similar program is “to make sure you do your homework,” Cahill said.

Specifically, she recommended feasibility studies, evaluation of the potential impact of infusions on the service, work flow analyses, and cost analyses. It’s also important to get high-level administrative support as well as buy-in from surgeons and patients, she added.

Future studies should include assessment of patient outcomes, safety, and length of intensive care unit and hospital stay, Cahill emphasized.

This study was internally funded. Cahill reported no conflicts of interest.

*The data in the presentation differ from the abstract.

Preoperative anemia management saves blood, money