Rotational Thromboelastometry Helps to Reduce Blood Product Consumption in Critically Ill Patients during Small Surgical Procedures at the Intensive Care Unit - a Retrospective Clinical Analysis and Literature Search

BACKGROUND: Patients at intensive care units (ICUs) are often transfused to correct increased coagulation parameters (prothrombin time and activated partial thromboplastine time) and/or low platelet count. Thromboelastometry using whole blood is considered to be superior to these tests. In clinical praxis, prolonged standard tests are seen but thromboelastometry values are normal. The objective was to compare the blood product consumptions before and after the introduction of thromboelastometry assays into the treatment protocol during small surgical procedures at our mixed ICU. METHODS: We analyzed 1,879 patients treated at our ICU who underwent small interventions. We compared the fresh frozen plasma and platelet consumption before and after the introduction of rotational thromboelastometry into the routine use. The obtained data were compared to relevant research results from the PubMed database, the MeSH index in the Medline database, and Google Scholar using key words 'tromboelastometry', 'fresh frozen plasma' and 'platelets'. RESULTS: Annual fresh frozen plasma and platelet consumptions were significantly decreased following thromboelastometry introduction. The number of patients and procedures did not differ significantly during the periods analyzed. CONCLUSION: Routine thromboelastometry assays can enable significant reduction of blood product consumption in critically ill patients undergoing small surgery without any bleeding complications.