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Background: Blood-borne infectious diseases are a major impediment to the provision of safe blood. Pathogen reduction (PR) technologies have been approved for the treatment of plasma and platelet (PLT) concentrates to reduce infectious complications and graft-versus-host disease but product potency is adversely affected, Study Design and Methods: We reviewed published data describing PR technology for estimates of treated blood component physical and functional loss. These physical and functional losses were summed and projected onto measured effects of plasma and PLT dose in trauma resuscitation. The net benefits estimated as reduced infectious disease deaths were compared to net losses estimated as increased deaths from uncontrolled hemorrhage., Results: Transfusion-transmitted infectious diseases caused five or fewer acute deaths each year from 2009 through 2014 in the United States according to the Food and Drug Administration. In-hospital deaths from uncontrolled hemorrhage after trauma number more than 10,000 yearly and are reduced by 4% to 15% with concentrated blood product resuscitation. The loss of 20% of plasma potency and 30% of PLT potency to PR is likely to be associated with 400 extra trauma deaths each year. Trauma represents a small fraction, perhaps 15%, of all massively transfused individuals., Conclusions: Resuscitation of massive hemorrhage may be limited by blood component potency as shown in our literature review and analysis. The safety-versus-potency trade involved with current blood plasma and PLT PR technology is likely to result in a net loss of life. Hemorrhagic risk from reduced blood product potency for patients with trauma and other indications for massive transfusion is an important consideration in risk-based decision making for implementing PR., (© 2016 AABB.)

Background: Although hemostatic resuscitation with a 1:1 ratio of fresh-frozen plasma (FFP) to packed red blood cells (PRBC) after severe hemorrhage has been shown to improve survival, its benefit in patients with traumatic-induced coagulopathy (TIC) after >10 units of PRBC during operation has not been elucidated. We hypothesized that a survival benefit would occur when early hemostatic resuscitation was used intraoperatively after injury in patients with TIC., Methods: A 7-year retrospective study of patients with emergency department diagnosis of TIC after transfusion of >10 units of PRBC in the operating room. TIC was defined as initial emergency department international normalized ratio > 1.2, prothrombin time > 16 seconds, and partial thromboplastin time > 50 seconds. Patients were divided into FFP:PRBC ratios of 1:1, 1:2, 1:3, and 1:4. Patients with diagnosis of TIC who received transfusion of both FFP and PRBC during surgery were included. Other variables evaluated included age, gender, mechanism of injury, initial base deficit, mean operative time, trauma intensive care unit length of stay (TICU LOS) and Injury Severity Score. The primary outcome measure evaluated was the impact of the early FFP:PRBC ratio on mortality., Results: Four hundred thirty-five patients underwent emergency operations postinjury and received FFP with >10 units of PRBC in the operating room; 135 (31.0%) of these patients had TIC and 53 died (39.5% mortality). Mean operative time was 137 minutes (SD +/- 49). There were no differences with regard to age, gender, mechanism of injury, initial base deficit, or Injury Severity Score among all groups. A significant difference in mortality was found in patients who received >10 units of PRBC when FFP:PRBC ratio was 1:1 versus 1:4 (28.2% vs. 51.1%, p = 0.03). Intermediate mortality rates were noted in patients with 1:2 and 1:3 ratios (38% and 40%, respectively). From a linear regression model, 13 days of increased TICU LOS was observed among 1:4 group compared with 1:1 group (p < 0.01)., Conclusion: TIC is common after severe injury and is associated with a high mortality in patients transfused with >10 units of PRBC during surgery. Early hemostatic resuscitation during first hours after injury improves survival with shorter TICU LOS in patients with TIC.