Evidence-Based Practice of Transfusion Medicine

Presenting the rationale of clinical research methods and evidence-based practice, this text Describes their application in the field of transfusion medicine. It addresses many current issues including NAT and the Allogenic Blood Supply, hepatitus C and Creutzfeld-Jakob disease.

---

Presenting the rationale of clinical research methods, this text describes their application in the field of transfusion medicine. In addition, it provides the tools needed to understand and practice evidence-based medicine, as well as an objective assessment of the risks that are presently associated with blood transfusion. Readers do not need to possess a prior knowledge of statistics to understand the clinical research tools discussed or the application of these tools in transfusion medicine. The concepts and tools of epidemiology are presented with an example-based approach and the treatment of the methodological issues is conceptual. Current issues addressed include NAT and the Allogenic Blood Supply, transfusion-associated hepatitus C virus, the issue of Creutzfeld-Jakob disease and transfusion transmission, allogenic blood transfusion and postoperative infection and cancer recurrence, and the cost-effectiveness of preoperative autologous blood donation.