ArticleTransfusion medicine (Oxford, England)2026
Timing of intrapartum transfusion among obstetric patients, stratified by admission and discharge haemoglobin, relative to anaesthesia care: A retrospective cohort study.
Article in Transfusion medicine (Oxford, England), 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundWe previously validated and implemented criteria for auditing anaesthesiologists with intraoperative transfusion based on low median blood loss of the surgical procedure or absence of anaemia before transfusion. However, obstetrical cases were excluded during implementation, as the peripartum blood management protocol does not include haemoglobin determinations, matching American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists recommendations. For non-obstetrical surgery, intraoperative transfusion is associated with an increased probability of postpartum transfusion. Because of the obstetrical transfusion approach, we hypothesized the opposite relationship between intrapartum and postpartum transfusion.
methodsThe retrospective cohort study included all 30 160 patients who delivered at the University of Iowa January 2013 through March 2025.
resultsAny RBC administration during anaesthesia care reduced the odds of later transfusion (odds ratio 0.14, 99% confidence interval (CI) 0.11%-0.18%). Single-unit RBC administration during anaesthesia reduced such odds (0.09, 99% CI 0.06%-0.11%), as did multiple-unit transfusion (0.18, 99% CI 0.13%-0.24%). McNemar tests had Bonferroni-adjusted p-values <0.0001. While antepartum anaemia (haemoglobin <11 g/dL) increased the probability of transfusion by 7.41% (standard error 0.43%) outside of anaesthesia care, the RBC transfusion decision during anaesthesia care was less influenced by anaemia, 1.52% (0.22%), p < 0.0001. Many (59%, 99% CI 50%-69%) RBC units started during anaesthesia care were administered to patients who were not anaemic (haemoglobin ≥11 g/dL) at admission. Most patients with single-unit RBC transfusion and blood loss <2500 mL had stable haemodynamics.
conclusionsUnlike several categories of non-obstetrical procedures, RBC transfusion during anaesthesia care for delivery was associated with a reduced probability of postpartum RBC transfusion. A reasonable approach for blood bank auditing of anaesthesiologists' obstetric RBC transfusion decision-making would be to review cases when RBC were administered, there was blood loss <2500 mL, no subsequent transfusion, and discharge haemoglobin ≥9 g/dL.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.