Patient Blood Management: Advances and Perspectives

Dear Colleagues,

In recent decades, increased awareness of the inherent risks of transfusion has resulted in major initiatives to mitigate those risks through improvements in blood component safety. The realisation that the intense focus on product safety had not been matched with a similar focus on improving transfusion decisions at the bedside led to the concept of “optimal blood use”. The practice of transfusion medicine now emphasises the judicious use of transfusion, only when clinically indicated, also reflecting the fact that blood is a limited resource coming from voluntary non-remunerated blood donors. The concept that “our own blood is still the best thing to have in our veins” (Frenzel, T.; Van Aken, H.; Westphal, M. Our own blood is still the best thing to have in our veins. Current Opinion in Anaesthesiology 2008, 21, 657–663. doi: 10.1097/ ACO.0b013e3283103e84) has given rise to various surgical “blood conservation” techniques. Underlying these efforts is the broader concept of “patient blood management” (PBM). This is a patient-centred approach that addresses iron deficiency, anaemia, coagulopathy and blood loss, in both surgical and nonsurgical patients, as risk factors for adverse medical outcomes. Under PBM, anaemia and iron deficiency are recognised as serious global health issues in their own right, affecting billions of people worldwide, yet globally, there is still a gap in awareness and implementation of PBM as an overall framework to address the risks of iron deficiency, anaemia, blood loss, and coagulopathy. For this reason, the World Health Organization (WHO) recently issued a policy brief highlighting the urgent need to implement the PBM worldwide. The implementation is also supported by the desire to increase patient safety in the transfusion setting.

This Special Issue seeks to collect contributions in the form of original research, reviews, communication, comments, and evidence-based opinions on the urgent need and opportunity to implement programs for PBM adoption across worldwide and will therefore accept contributions relating to—but not limited to—clinical, transfusional, organisational, and legal aspects of the application of PBM strategies in any medical speciality.

Dr. Daniele Rodriguez
Dr. Matteo Bolcato
Dr. Vincenzo De Angelis
Dr. Vanessa Agostini
Guest Editors

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