title: Reconstituted blood reduces blood donor exposures in children undergoing craniofacial reconstruction surgery.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the effect of prophylactic administration of fresh-frozen plasma (FFP) in the form of reconstituted blood in children undergoing craniofacial reconstruction. The outcomes of interest included immediate postoperative coagulation laboratory test results, postoperative surgical drain output, and the number of unique blood donor exposures incurred.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  We recently changed our intraoperative transfusion strategy in children undergoing craniofacial reconstruction surgery to one in which blood loss is replaced with donor-matched reconstituted blood rather than traditional blood component therapy.
  
  
  METHODS
  We performed a query of our prospective craniofacial surgery perioperative registry for children who underwent fronto-orbital advancement or posterior cranial vault reconstruction. Registry data from this query were compared to data from a historical cohort.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Data for 46 registry cases were compared to 150 historical cohort cases. The median number of unique donor exposures for the reconstituted blood group was 2 vs 3 in the historical cohort (P=0.004). The reconstituted blood group had a decreased incidence of postoperative derangements in soluble clotting factor tests (fibrinogen, PT, or aPTT; 2% vs 24%, P=0.001), while there was no evidence for a difference in the incidence of thrombocytopenia. There was no evidence for differences in postoperative surgical drain output in the reconstituted blood group and historical cohort over the first 12, 24, and 48 h.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Prophylactic administration of FFP in the form of donor-matched reconstituted blood in children undergoing craniofacial reconstruction was associated with improved postoperative coagulation parameters, reduced blood donor exposures, and unchanged postoperative surgical drain output.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19104-4399, USA. strickerp@email.chop.edu
authors.forename: Paul A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Stricker
authors.forename: John E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Fiadjoe
authors.forename: Amanda R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.forename: Emily
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sussman
authors.forename: Beverly J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Burgess
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ciampa
authors.forename: Jared
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mendelsohn
authors.forename: Scott P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Bartlett
authors.forename: Deborah A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Sesok-Pizzini
authors.forename: David R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Jobes
mesh_terms: D001777:Blood Coagulation; D001780:Blood Coagulation Tests; D016913:Blood Component Transfusion; D001782:Blood Donors; D016063:Blood Loss, Surgical; D001803:Blood Transfusion / Q000379:methods*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D019465:Craniofacial Abnormalities / Q000601:surgery*; D003398:Craniosynostoses / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D010949:Plasma; D011182:Postoperative Care; D019651:Plastic Surgery Procedures; D012042:Registries; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013921:Thrombocytopenia / Q000517:prevention & control; D016896:Treatment Outcome