TY - JOUR T1 - Restrictive red blood cell transfusion strategies appear safe in most clinical settings JF - Evidence Based Medicine JO - Evid Based Med SP - 170 LP - 170 DO - 10.1136/ebmed-2015-110218 VL - 20 IS - 5 AU - Nareg H Roubinian AU - Jeffrey L Carson Y1 - 2015/10/01 UR - http://ebm.bmj.com/content/20/5/170.abstract N2 - Commentary on: Holst LB, Petersen MW, Haase N, et al. Restrictive versus liberal transfusion strategy for red blood cell transfusion: systematic review of randomised trials with meta-analysis and trial sequential analysis. BMJ 2015;350:h1354.OpenUrlAbstract/FREE Full TextSubstantial progress has been made in generating data to make evidence-based recommendations for red blood cell (RBC) transfusion. Findings from clinical trials suggest that in most clinical settings, a restrictive transfusion strategy, where RBCs are transfused once haemoglobin levels fall below either 7 or 8 g/dL, does not impact mortality compared with liberal transfusion where RBCs are transfused when haemoglobin levels fall below 9–10 g/dL.1 This meta-analysis, incorporating data from five recently published clinical trials, was used to compare the overall risk of death and other adverse events of liberal and restrictive transfusion strategies.The authors performed a study-level meta-analysis on 31 prospective randomised controlled trials of hospitalised patients (n=9813) where … ER -