A Blood Transfusion And Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery. Part 1 of 3

A Blood Transfusion And Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery. Receiving a blood transfusion during crux bypass surgery may raise a patient’s risk of pneumonia, researchers report. “The capacity to store and transfuse blood is one of medicine’s greatest accomplishments, but we are continuing to see that receiving a blood transfusion may alter a patient’s ability to fight infection,” Dr James Edgerton, of The Heart Hospital, Baylor Plano in Texas, said in a Society of Thoracic Surgeons announcement release. He was not involved in the study. For the current study, investigators looked at observations on more than 16000 patients who had heart bypass surgery.

The surgeries took place at 33 US hospitals between 2011 and 2013. Nearly 40 percent of those surgical patients received red blood cubicle transfusions, the findings showed. Just under 4 percent of the entire group developed pneumonia. People given one or two units of red blood cells were twice as apt to to develop pneumonia compared to those who didn’t receive blood transfusions. Those who received six units or more were 14 times more likely to develop pneumonia, the researchers found.

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