Duration of red blood cell storage and survival of transfused patients (CME).
BACKGROUND
Disquieting reports of increased complication and death rates after transfusions of red blood cells (RBCs) stored for more than 14 days prompted us to perform an observational retrospective cohort study of mortality in relation to storage time.


METHODS
We conducted a cohort study utilizing data on all recipients of at least one RBC transfusion in Sweden and Denmark between 1995 and 2002, as recorded in the Scandinavian Donations and Transfusions (SCANDAT) database. Relative risks of death in relation to storage time were estimated using Cox regression, adjusted for several possible confounding factors.


RESULTS
After various exclusions, 404,959 transfusion episodes remained for analysis. The 7-day risk of death was similar in all exposure groups, but a tendency for a higher risk emerged among recipients of blood stored for 30 to 42 days (hazard ratio, 1.05; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.97-1.12), compared to recipients of blood stored for 10 to 19 days. With 2-year follow-up, this excess remained at the same level (hazard ratio, 1.05; 95% CI, 1.02-1.08). No dose-response pattern was revealed and no differential effect was seen when the analyses were restricted to recipients of leukoreduced units only.


CONCLUSIONS
Although a small excess mortality was noted in recipients of the oldest RBCs, the risk pattern was more consistent with weak confounding than with an effect of the momentary exposure to stored RBCs. It seems, thus, that any excess mortality conferred by older RBCs in the combined Swedish and Danish transfusion recipient population is likely less than 5%, which is considerably smaller than in the hitherto largest investigation.
Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, SE-171 77 Stockholm, Sweden. gustaf.edgren@ki.se
Gustaf
G
Edgren
Mads
M
Kamper-Jørgensen
Sandra
S
Eloranta
Klaus
K
Rostgaard
Brian
B
Custer
Henrik
H
Ullum
Edward L
EL
Murphy
Michael P
MP
Busch
Marie
M
Reilly
Mads
M
Melbye
Henrik
H
Hjalgrim
Olof
O
Nyrén
D001793:Blood Preservation / Q000009:adverse effects*; D016208:Databases, Factual; D003718:Denmark; D017707:Erythrocyte Transfusion / Q000401:mortality*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D013548:Sweden; D013997:Time Factors