Association between preoperative blood transfusion and postoperative venous thromboembolism: Review meta-analysis

Department of Clinical Laboratory, Qingdao Municipal Hospital, Qingdao, Shandong 266011, China. Department of Clinical Nutrition, The Affiliated Yantai Yuhuangding Hospital of Qingdao University, Shandong 264000, China. Department of Transfusion Medicine, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan, Shandong 255021, China. Electronic address: lanjf0324@163.com.

Annals of vascular surgery. 2020
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PICO Summary

Population

Patients undergoing surgery (8 studies, n= 3,504,778).

Intervention

Preoperative blood transfusion.

Comparison

Without preoperative blood transfusion.

Outcome

Pooled analysis showed an association between preoperative blood transfusion and postoperative venous thromboembolism (VTE). In subgroup analyses, the positive association between preoperative blood transfusion and postoperative VTE still existed in studies with confounders adjustment.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES Several studies have shown that preoperative blood transfusion is associated with postoperative venous thromboembolism (VTE). In this study, a meta-analysis was performed to explore the relationship between preoperative blood transfusion and postoperative VTE. METHODS Published articles were identified through a comprehensive review of PUBMED and EMBASE. Data from studies reporting relative risks, odds ratios, or hazard ratios comparing the risk of postoperative VTE among participants who had preoperative blood transfusion versus those without preoperative blood transfusion were analyzed. A random-effect model was used to calculate pooled odds ratios and 95% confident intervals (CI). RESULTS Eight studies, which included 3,504,778 participants, aligned with our inclusion criteria, and were included in the meta-analysis. Pooled analysis showed an association between preoperative blood transfusion and postoperative VTE, with an odds ratio of 2.95 (95%CI, 1.65, 5.30; I(2) = 89.1%). In subgroup analyses, the positive association between preoperative blood transfusion and postoperative VTE were still exist in studies with confounders adjustment. Sensitivity analysis by one-study removed analysis confirmed the robustness of our results. CONCLUSIONS Our study indicated that preoperative blood transfusion was associated with higher odds of postoperative VTE. Further large-scale prospective cohort studies are needed to investigate the causality between preoperative blood transfusion and postoperative VTE.
Study details
Study Design : Systematic Review
Language : eng
Credits : Bibliographic data from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine