Background: Accumulating evidence suggests that transfusion of packed red blood cells (PRBCs) stored for >14 days is associated with increased rates of sepsis, multiple organ dysfunction, and mortality in human patients.
Objective: To determine if duration of PRBC storage has an effect on morbidity and mortality in dogs after transfusion.
Animals: Dogs admitted to the Matthew J Ryan Veterinary Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.
Methods: A retrospective case review of dogs identified through blood bank logbooks that received PRBC transfusions (minimum, 5 mL/kg) between 2001 and 2010. Dogs were categorized according to major cause of anemia (eg, hemorrhage, hemolysis, ineffective erythropoiesis) for analysis.
Results: A total of 3,095 dogs received 5,412 PRBC units. Longer duration of PRBC storage was associated with development of new or progressive coagulation failure (P = .001) and thromboembolic disease (P = .005). There was no association between duration of PRBC storage and survival for all dogs overall. However, a logistic regression model indicated that for dogs with hemolysis, 90% of which had immune-mediated hemolytic anemia, longer duration of PRBC storage was a negative risk factor for survival. For every 7 day increase in storage, there was a 0.79 lesser odds of 30 day survival (95% CI, 0.64-0.97; P = .024).
Conclusions and clinical importance: Duration of PRBC storage does not appear to be a major contributing factor to mortality in the overall canine population. However, longer duration of PRBC storage may negatively impact outcome in dogs with immune-mediated hemolytic anemia, thus warranting further investigation with prospective studies.
Keywords: Anemia; Canine; Hemolysis; Immune-mediated hemolytic anemia.
Copyright © 2014 by the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine.