Are Blood Transfusions Bad for Your Health?

Newswise — The August issue of the journal Anesthesiology, contains a study on potential long-term adverse effects resulting from blood transfusion and reveals that moderate amounts of transfused blood in patients in patients undergoing cardiac surgery did not lead to long-term health problems or increased death rates for the majority of recipients.

"These results demonstrated that 80 percent of patients studied were alive more than 10 years after surgery," said lead study author William M. Weightman, M.B., Ch.B., F.A.N.Z.C.A.

About the Study

Researchers in Western Australia studied the health outcomes of 1,841 patients who underwent low-risk coronary artery bypass surgery, following the patients up to 12 years after surgery.

The study included 1,062 subjects who required blood transfusions before surgery, during surgery or in the recovery period after surgery. Subjects were patients undergoing low risk cardiac surgery, a surgical procedure that typically requires blood-product transfusion in 50 percent of patients.

The study determined certain pre-existing patient conditions at the time of surgery reduced long-term survival in subjects: advanced age (over 60 years old), cerebrovascular disease, use of mammary graft, lung disease, kidney dysfunction, heart muscle damage and preoperative anemia]

Additionally, previous research suggested blood transfusions could lead to serious health issues including adverse effects on the immune system and spread of tumor cells.

"We were also hoping to establish if having a blood transfusion was likely to promote cancer in the recipient of the blood transfusion as some research has indicated this may occur," said Dr. Weightman. "Our results indicate that a moderate blood transfusion does not promote the spread of such cells. Patients who receive a blood transfusion were no more likely to get the disease than those who did not."

Anesthesiologists: Physicians providing the lifeline of modern medicine. Founded in 1905, the American Society of Anesthesiologists is an educational, research and scientific association with 43,000 members organized to raise and maintain the standards of the medical practice of anesthesiology and improve the care of the patient.

For more information visit the ASA Web site at www.asahq.org.