• Kan Ma and John F Bebawy.
• From the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, St Michael's Hospital, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
• Anesth. Analg. 2024 May 1; 138 (5): 9921002992-1002.

AbstractAnemia is a highly prevalent condition that may compromise oxygen delivery to vital organs, especially among the critically ill. Although current evidence supports the adoption of a restrictive transfusion strategy and threshold among the nonbleeding critically ill patient, it remains unclear whether this practice should apply to the brain-injured patient, given the predisposition to cerebral ischemia in this patient population, in which even nonprofound anemia may exert a detrimental effect on clinical outcomes. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of the pathophysiological changes related to impaired cerebral oxygenation in the brain-injured patient and to present the available evidence on the effect of anemia and varying transfusion thresholds on the clinical outcomes of patients with acute brain injury.Copyright © 2023 International Anesthesia Research Society.

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