Association of bacterial infection and red blood cell transfusion after coronary artery bypass surgery.

Background: Previous studies have shown an association between red blood cell transfusions (RBC) and bacterial infections following coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. We sought to assess whether there is an independent effect of RBC on the incidence of bacterial infections.

Methods: This was a prospective cohort study of 533 CABG patients over a 7-month period.