Should adding pain, oxygen saturation and physical assessment to vital signs become the new standard of care for detecting blood transfusion reactions?

Background And Objectives: Clinicians sought to ascertain what frequency of vital signs best detects blood transfusion reactions. This review discusses early and delayed blood product transfusion reaction detection through the lens of scientific literature.

Methods: A comprehensive appraisal of published literature was conducted using Integrative Research Review methodology through June 2022 not limited to English or research in Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Cochrane Library of Systematic Reviews, Medline and PubMed.

Detecting blood transfusion reactions: What are vital signs anyway?

There is a lack of consistency in the scientific literature regarding what is included in vital signs and considered derangement in findings. We used vital signs during blood product administration as an exemplar to explore this controversy. Vital sign components varied across all studies when reviewed by a cohort of frontline nurses attempting to align institutional policy with current evidence.