Hospital-acquired anemia in ICU: 64% of patients, Florida

Researchers reviewed medical records from the intensive care unit of a hospital in southwest Florida and found hospital-acquired anemia (HAA) in 69 of 108 adult patients (64%), according to a study in American Journal of Critical Care doi.org. The retrospective, exploratory review used a 6-month convenience sample of 151 patients, of whom 108 met the inclusion criteria doi.org. HAA was defined as a decline in hemoglobin of 10% or more from admission to discharge.

Hemoglobin decline and length of stay

The mean (SD) hemoglobin decline was 20% (8%) in patients with HAA and 4% (2%) in those without it (P < .001) doi.org. Stays were longer for the 69 patients with HAA than for the 39 without: mean 5.9 (SD 5.8) days versus 3.3 (3.6) days (P = .005) doi.org.

A sensitivity analysis excluded 6 outliers, leaving 102 patients. The difference persisted: 5.1 (4.2) days with HAA versus 2.8 (1.7) days without (P < .001) doi.org.

Possible causes and limits

The authors name phlebotomy, intravenous fluid resuscitation and medications as contributing factors to HAA in intensive care units doi.org. In this study, causality regarding phlebotomy was not directly measured doi.org. The work is a retrospective record review in one unit, so it describes a correlation between hemoglobin decline and longer stays.

The authors concluded that the high prevalence of HAA supports implementing blood conservation strategies to improve clinical outcomes and reduce iatrogenic blood loss doi.org.

Hospital-acquired anemia found in 64% of 108 ICU patients at a southwest Florida hospital

Hemoglobin decline and length of stay

Possible causes and limits

Sources · 2

Read also

Stronger US state trade secret law linked to 4.2% lower inventor-network modularity in 783 firms