Anesthesia Management: Blood Bank Group Offers Guidelines on Which Patients Should Receive Platelet Transfusions

The AABB, formerly the American Association of Blood Banks, recommends that adults with therapy-induced hypoproliferative thrombocytopenia should receive a prophylactic platelet transfusion to lower their bleeding risk, according to new guidelines published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

The recommendation — the only one strongly endorsed by the group — advises that hospitalized adults with a platelet count of 10 x 109 cells/L or less should receive a transfusion up to a single apheresis unit.

In weaker recommendations, the AABB merely suggests giving prophylactic platelet transfusions to the following groups:

1) patients undergoing elective central venous catheter placement with a platelet count below 20 x 109 cells/L;

2) patients having elective diagnostic lumbar puncture or major elective nonneuraxial surgery with a platelet count below 50 x 109cells/L.