Anemia and Blood Transfusion in Patients with Isolated Traumatic Brain Injury

Rationale. By reducing cerebral oxygen delivery, anemia may aggravate traumatic brain injury (TBI) secondary insult. This study evaluated the impact of anemia and blood transfusion on TBI outcomes. Methods. This was a retrospective cohort study of adult patients with isolated TBI at a tertiary-care intensive care unit from 1/1/2000 to 31/12/2011. Daily hemoglobin level and packed red blood cell (PRBC) transfusion were recorded. Patients with hemoglobin < 10 g/dL during ICU stay (anemic group) were compared with other patients. Results. Anemia was present on admission in two (2%) patients and developed in 48% during the first week with hemoglobin < 7 g/dL occurring in 3.0%. Anemic patients had higher admission Injury Severity Score and underwent more craniotomy (50% versus 13%, p < 0.001). Forty percent of them received PRBC transfusion (2.8 ± 1.5 units per patient, median pretransfusion hemoglobin = 8.8 g/dL). Higher hospital mortality was associated with anemia (25% versus 6% for nonanemic patients, p = 0.01) and PRBC transfusion (38% versus 9% for nontransfused patients, p = 0.003). On multivariate analysis, only PRBC transfusion independently predicted hospital mortality (odds ratio: 6.8; 95% confidence interval: 1.1–42.3). Conclusions. Anemia occurred frequently after isolated TBI, but only PRBC transfusion independently predicted mortality.