Ultramassive transfusion and adjunctive therapies in a case of blood bank depletion

BACKGROUND: We present the case of a patient who presents with a high velocity thoracoabdominal gunshot wound requiring ultramassive transfusion who exhausted the county blood bank requiring adjunctive therapies to balanced blood product transfusion while additional blood products could be obtained. SUMMARY: Thoracoabdominal gunshot wounds carry a high mortality of 14–37 % because of the risk to produce cardiopulmonary, solid organ as well as major vascular injuries (Mandal and Oparah (1989) [1]). Ultramassive transfusion (>20 units of blood product transfusion) also carries high morbidity and mortality and management has generally centered on balanced transfusion (Matthay et al. (2021) [2]). CONCLUSION: Balanced blood product transfusion reduces mortality for patients requiring ultramassive transfusion but when this is not possible utilization of adjuncts to blood products may temporize resuscitation until additional blood products can be obtained.