Transfus Apher Sci
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Comparative Study
A multi-centre randomised controlled trial of Transfusion Indication Threshold Reduction on transfusion rates, morbidity and healthcare resource use following cardiac surgery: study protocol.
Thresholds for red blood cell transfusion following cardiac surgery vary by hospital and surgeon. The TITRe2 multi-centre randomised controlled trial aims to randomise 2000 patients from 17 United Kingdom centres, and tests the hypothesis that a restrictive transfusion threshold will reduce postoperative morbidity and health service costs compared to a liberal threshold. ⋯ The primary outcome is a binary composite outcome of any serious infectious or ischaemic event in the first three months after randomisation. Many challenges have been encountered in the set-up and running of the study.