Impact of a conservative red blood cell transfusion strategy in children undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

A 2008 randomized trial of critically ill, but stable, children reported the safety of transfusing red blood cells at a hemoglobin threshold of 7 g/dL. In 2009, we adopted the same transfusion criteria in our hematopoietic stem cell transplantation patients. Regression modeling was used to compare data obtained during primary admission for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in calendar years before and after our practice change.