Patient Blood Management: a revolutionary approach to transfusion medicine

Franchini M^1,2, Marano G¹, Veropalumbo E¹, Masiello F¹, Pati I¹, Candura F¹, Profili S¹, Catalano L¹, Piccinini V¹, Pupella S¹, Vaglio S^1,3, Liumbruno GM¹.

^{1 Italian National Blood Centre, National Institute of Health, Rome, Italy.}

^{2 Department of Haematology and Transfusion Medicine, “Carlo Poma” Hospital, Mantua, Italy.}

^{3 Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine, “Sapienza” University of Rome, Rome, Italy.}

Abstract

Patient Blood Management (PBM) is a multimodal, multidisciplinary approach adopted to limit the use and the need for allogeneic blood transfusion in all at-risk patients with the aim of improving their clinical outcomes. Although PBM usually refers to surgical patients, its clinical use has gradually evolved over the last few years and it now also refers to medical conditions. This review will critically analyse the current knowledge on the use of PBM programmes in surgical and non-surgical patients.