Estimates of blood loss during surgery by anesthesia personnel may lead to excess transfusion, according to a recent study reported in Anesthesiology News. The study found that the estimated blood loss exceeded measured blood loss by more than 40 percent during spine procedures.
"Interpretation of intermittent measurements of hemoglobin levels is often complicated by fluid shifts, intravenous volume infusions and transfusions," said John Stover, MSN, a nurse practitioner at Duke University Medical Center who helped conduct the study. "[The process of estimating blood loss] is not only labor-intensive, but care must also be taken to avoid bone fragments that may be in the sponges," he said. "I think the problem is that we still use visual estimation of hemoglobin loss, and it's very difficult to determine the actual hemoglobin concentration. So at this point there's not a silver bullet that will give us an exact number."
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"Interpretation of intermittent measurements of hemoglobin levels is often complicated by fluid shifts, intravenous volume infusions and transfusions," said John Stover, MSN, a nurse practitioner at Duke University Medical Center who helped conduct the study. "[The process of estimating blood loss] is not only labor-intensive, but care must also be taken to avoid bone fragments that may be in the sponges," he said. "I think the problem is that we still use visual estimation of hemoglobin loss, and it's very difficult to determine the actual hemoglobin concentration. So at this point there's not a silver bullet that will give us an exact number."
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