Indian journal of anaesthesia
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Anaemia and allogeneic blood transfusions in surgical patients are associated with poor outcomes. Patient blood management (PBM) has been developed as an evidence-based clinical tool, by which clinicians can optimise anaemia, manage peri-operative bleeding, avoid unnecessary blood transfusion and improve patient outcome. This article aims to highlight the recent updates regarding evidence-based PBM in the perioperative period, following a thorough literature review involving original research articles, published guidelines and consensus documents discovered through an extensive PubMed and Medline search. ⋯ Point-of-care coagulation tests with visco-elastographic methods and haemoglobin measurement ensure that the transfusion prescription is tailored to a patient. In the post-operative period, PBM highlights the need for patients to be optimised before discharge from the hospital. Implementation of the PBM has been shown to have individual health as well as economic benefits.