Transfusion threshold of 7 g per deciliter--the new normal

Holst and colleagues1 now provide definitive evidence in the Journal that a restrictive approach to blood transfusion not only reduced blood use by half but also did not cause harm to 998 critically ill patients with septic shock. It has been 15 years since the publication of the results of the Transfusion Requirements in Critical Care (TRICC) trial in the Journal.2 In that Canadian Critical Care Trial Group study, 838 critically ill patients were randomly assigned to receive blood transfusions on the basis of a threshold of 7 g per deciliter or 10 g per deciliter while also agreeing . . .