Blood and bombs: blood use after the Boston Marathon bombing of April 15, 2013

U.S. cities will not meet blood product resuscitation standards during major mass casualty incidents: Results of a THOR-AABB working party prospective analysis

BACKGROUND

Mass casualty incidents (MCIs) create an immediate surge in blood product demand. We hypothesize local inventories in major U.S. cities would not meet this demand.

STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS

A simulated blast in a large crowd estimated casualty numbers. Ideal resuscitation was defined as equal amounts of red blood cells (RBCs), plasma, platelets, and cryoprecipitate. Inventory was prospectively collected from six major U.S. cities at six time points between January and July 2019. City-wide blood inventories were classified as READY (>1 U/injured survivor), DEFICIENT (<10 U/severely injured survivor), or RISK (between READY and DEFICIENT), before and after resupply from local distribution centers (DC), and features of DEFICIENT cities were identified.

RESULTS

The simulated blast resulted in 2218 injured survivors including 95 with severe injuries. Balanced resuscitation would require between 950 and 2218 units each RBC, plasma, platelets and cryoprecipitate. Inventories in 88 hospitals/health systems and 10 DCs were assessed. Of 36 city-wide surveys, RISK inventories included RBCs (n = 16; 44%), plasma (n = 24; 67%), platelets (n = 6; 17%), and cryoprecipitate (n = 22; 61%) while DEFICIENT inventories included platelets (n = 30; 83%) and cryoprecipitate (n = 12; 33%). Resupply shifted most RBC and plasma inventories to READY, but some platelet and cryoprecipitate inventories remained at RISK (n = 24; 67% and n = 12; 33%, respectively) or even DEFICIENT (n = 11; 31% and n = 6; 17%, respectively). Cities with DEFICIENT inventories were smaller (p <.001) with fewer blood products per trauma bed (p <.001).

DISCUSSION

In this simulated blast event, blood product demand exceeded local supply in some major U.S. cities. Options for closing this gap should be explored to optimize resuscitation during MCIs.

Limitations of Available Blood Products for Massive Transfusion During Mass Casualty Events at US Level 1 Trauma Centers

INTRODUCTION

Exsanguination remains a leading cause of preventable death in traumatically injured patients. To better treat hemorrhagic shock, hospitals have adopted massive transfusion protocols (MTPs) which accelerate the delivery of blood products to patients. There has been an increase in mass casualty events (MCE) worldwide over the past two decades. These events can overwhelm a responding hospital's supply of blood products. Using a computerized model, this study investigated the ability of US trauma centers (TCs) to meet the blood product requirements of MCEs.

METHODS

Cross-sectional survey data of on-hand blood products were collected from 16 US level-1 TCs. A discrete event simulation model of a TC was developed based on historic data of blood product consumption during MCEs. Each hospital's blood bank was evaluated across increasingly more demanding MCEs using modern MTPs to guide resuscitation efforts in massive transfusion (MT) patients.

RESULTS

A total of 9,000 simulations were performed on each TC's data. Under the least demanding MCE scenario, the median size MCE in which TCs failed to adequately meet blood product demand was 50 patients (IQR 20-90), considering platelets. Ten TCs exhaust their supply of platelets prior to red blood cells (RBCs) or plasma. Disregarding platelets, five TCs exhausted their supply of O- packed RBCs, six exhausted their AB plasma supply, and five had a mixed exhaustion picture.

CONCLUSION

Assuming a TC's ability to treat patients is limited only by their supply of blood products, US level-1 TCs lack the on-hand blood products required to adequately treat patients following a MCE. Use of non-traditional blood products, which have a longer shelf life, may allow TCs to better meet the blood product requirement needs of patients following larger MCEs.

Maintaining adequate donations and a sustainable blood supply: Lessons learned

Background

The availability of a safe blood supply is a key component of transfusion medicine. A decade of decreased blood use, decreased payment for products, and a dwindling donor base have placed the sustainability of the US blood supply at risk.

Study Design and Methods

A literature review was performed for blood center (BC) and hospital disaster management, chronically transfusion‐dependent diseases, and appropriate use of group O‐negative red blood cells (RBCs), and the Choosing Wisely campaign. The aim was to identify current practice and to make recommendations for BC and hospital actions.

Results

While BCs are better prepared to handle disasters than after the 9/11 attacks, messaging to the public remains difficult, as donors often do not realize that blood transfused during a disaster was likely collected before the event. BCs and transfusion services should participate in drafting disaster response plans. Hospitals should maintain inventories adequate for patients in the event supply is disrupted. Providing specialty products for transfusion‐dependent patients can strain collections, lead to increased use of group O RBCs, and create logistical inventory challenges for hospitals. The AABB Choosing Wisely initiative addresses overuse of blood components to optimally use this precious resource. Group O‐negative RBCs should be transfused only to patients who truly need them.

Conclusions

Collecting and maintaining a blood supply robust enough to handle disasters and transfusion‐dependent patients in need of specialty products is challenging. Collaboration of all parties should help to optimize resources, ensure appropriate collections, improve patient care, and ultimately result in a robust, sustainable blood supply.

How do I manage O- red blood cell inventory

Currently there are no widely accepted guidelines regarding the appropriate use of O- red blood cells (RBCs). Although there has been a decline in overall RBC utilization since 2010, the use of O- RBCs has continued to proportionally increase over this time period resulting in frequent shortages. When faced with these shortages, we implemented some simple strategies that resulted in a significant decrease in annual O- RBC utilization from 10% to 7.5% despite an increase in total RBC utilization. These strategies included collaboration with the clinical staff, improving practices within the blood bank, and having our health system partner with our blood supplier. Herein, we detail our strategies for hospital transfusion services to improve O- RBC utilization. Most of these can be easily implemented and do not require additional resources.

Blood transfusions in mass casualty events: recent trends

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

The US AABB disaster task force recommends estimating 3 RBC units per admission (UPA) for mass casualty events (MCEs). In a previous analysis, median MCE UPA were 2·7 RBCs, 1·2 plasmas and 0·27 platelet doses (Vox Sang 2017; 112:648). Additional recent data were sought from the current era of balanced massive transfusion protocols (bMTPs).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Publications in English from 1980 to 2020 were reviewed for MCEs using ≥50 RBCs/event and with numbers of admissions available. MCE reports were stratified by era and event-wide or trauma-centre source. The bMTP era included all MCEs since 2010 plus a 2008 bMTP military report.

STATISTICS

Mann-Whitney test.

RESULTS

Thirty-two MCEs met analysis criteria. Event-wide reports used medians [interquartile ranges] of 1·8 [1·2-3·9] RBC, 0·6 [0·3-0·9] plasma and 0·14 [0·06-0·26] platelet-dose UPA. Trauma centres transfused 3·4 [2·7-6·3] RBC, 2·4 [1·3-4·1] plasma and 0·41 [0·34-0·50] platelet-dose UPA, all P < 0·05 vs event-wide. Same-event median post-day-1 transfusions were 50% of day-1 use for RBC, 28% for plasma and 16% for platelets. Compared to prior years, the median plasma/RBC transfusion ratio rose from 0·28 to 0·67 in the bMTP era (P < 0·01). In recent mass shootings, trauma centres transfused up to 42 platelets (range 0·45-0·57 UPA) on day 1.

CONCLUSION

Based on available mass casualty data, we recommend planning for 3 RBC, 1 plasma and one-fourth platelet-dose units per admission for blood centres (event-wide), and 6, 4 and one-half UPA, respectively, for trauma centres, which have seen rising plasma usage and large mass-shooting platelet needs.

Blood component transfusions in mass casualty events

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Planning transfusion needs in mass casualty events (MCE) is critical for disaster preparedness. Published data on blood component usage were analysed to seek correlative factors and usage rates.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

English-language medical publications since 1980 were searched for MCEs with numbers of patient admissions and transfused RBCs. Reports were excluded from natural disasters or with total RBC use <50 units. Statistical analysis employed Mann-Whitney U-tests and Spearman's rank correlations.

RESULTS

In 24 reports, the average units per admission were 3·06 RBCs, 2·13 plasmas and 0·37 platelet doses. Five RBCs per admission would have sufficed for 87% of events. Transfusion needs involving bombings correlated with admissions (P ≤ 0·03). In the formula (massive-transfusion patients in MCE) times X = (total units for all MCE patients), the average X was 35 for RBCs (correlation P = 0·01), 17 for plasma (P = 0·10) and five for platelet doses (P = 0·06). From 67% to 84% of all components used were given in the first 24 h (event medians).

CONCLUSIONS

Blood component use in MCEs correlated with numbers of patients admitted or receiving massive transfusion. More current data are needed to better reflect emerging trauma care practices and refine predictive models of transfusion needs.