Long-term survival after blood transfusion.

Background: Look-back investigations of populations of patients admitted to major tertiary-care hospitals in the 1980s found a 2-year posttransfusion mortality rate in excess of 50 percent. To quantify the association of blood transfusion with mortality in a more broadly based population, a cohort of all residents of a United States county who underwent transfusion in 1981 was studied.

Study Design And Methods: Retrospective cohort study comprised 802 county residents.

Epidemiology of blood transfusion.

Background: Earlier investigations of the epidemiologic attributes of blood transfusion were not based on total community populations. To calculate incidence rates of the transfusion of blood and blood components in the general population and in age- and gender-specific groups, all residents of a United States county who received transfusion(s) from 1989 through 1992 were studied.

Study Design And Methods: The study was a prevalence survey (cross-sectional study) of a well-defined population at a specified time.

Errors in transfusion medicine. Detection, analysis, frequency, and prevention.

The Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minn) Division of Transfusion Medicine evaluated the effect of methods of error detection, analysis, and prevention on the rate of errors occurring from 1982 through 1992. We defined an error as any deviation from the standard operating procedure. Twenty-four standard operating procedures were monitored for errors that related to donor processing, testing of donor blood, patient testing, and transfusion.