Anemia and red blood cell transfusion practice in prolonged mechanically ventilated patients admitted to a specialized weaning center: an observational study

Intubation and mechanical ventilation is a life-saving procedure for patients presenting with severe acute respiratory failure. The majority of patients can be weaned promptly on recovery and resolution of the underlying condition. However, 7–14% of patients remain ventilated longer than 7 days [1, 2], which is frequently followed by tracheostomy and transferal to specialized weaning and rehabilitation centers, with variable outcomes reported [3, 4]. In virtually all critically ill patients hemoglobin levels decline below normal limits during their stay in the intensive care unit (ICU). Therefore, anemia is a very common comorbid condition at the time of admission to the weaning center [5]. In patients receiving long-term mechanical ventilation, the presence of anemia may interfere with their ability to wean from ventilatory support [6]. Nevertheless, although it seems reasonable to speculate that improving oxygen delivery, to overcome the increased workload on respiratory muscles during spontaneous breathing trials (SBT), will consequently facilitate weaning from mechanical ventilation, the hemoglobin threshold for transfusion that can best help achieve this goal is still undetermined. Only a few small case studies have investigated this question [7, 8], with no clear recommendations made in the existing guidelines [1, 9]. In the 1980s and later, studies were published that were indicative of an immunomodulatory effect [10] of red blood cell (RBC) transfusions in critically ill patients, describing an association with nosocomial infections (NI) [11‐16], which in turn could adversely affect patients’ outcome.

The aim of the present study was to describe the incidence and severity of anemia and to investigate the impact of RBC transfusion on weaning outcome, hospital mortality, and nosocomial infection rates in prolonged mechanically ventilated, tracheotomized patients, admitted to a specialized weaning center.

This is a retrospective, single-center, observational cohort study at a national weaning center in Germany. The 12-bed ward was established in 2006 and is part of the specialized lung clinic at Schillerhoehe (Gerlingen). The weaning unit is equipped to provide invasive (by tracheostomy tube) and non-invasive ventilatory support. Since the establishment of the unit, it has taken referrals from intensive care units across Germany. Main preconditions for referral of a patient were hemodynamic stability without need for vasopressors or inotropic agents, wakefulness without need for continuous sedation, and invasive mechanical ventilation by tracheostomy tube with a positive end-expiratory pressure less than 10 cmH₂O and a fraction of inspired oxygen less than 0.6.

The study was approved by the local ethics committee, the need for informed consent was waived (ethics committee of the State Chamber of Physicians of Baden-Wuerttemberg).

In the described period, 378 patients met the inclusion criteria; a further 14 patients were excluded. The total population was divided into transfused (T) and non-transfused (NT) patients; there were 168 (44.4%) patients in the T group and 210 (55.6%) patients in the NT group. Table 1 shows the baseline clinical characteristics of all patients and between the two groups on admission to the weaning center.

The present study describes for the first time transfusion practice in prolonged mechanically ventilated, tracheotomized patients, treated at a specialized weaning center after surviving acute respiratory insufficiency. So far, there are only a few studies [3, 4] on this group of patients and the impact of RBC transfusion on weaning outcome, occurrence of nosocomial infections and survival has not yet been investigated.

An essential finding of the present study is that transfused patients differed significantly from those who were not transfused in the course of weaning regarding their clinical characteristics on admission. Patients in the T group appeared to be more diseased, recognizable by higher APACHE-II scores, lower levels of albumin and hemoglobin, and a larger proportion of cardiac comorbidities and renal insufficiency. The proportion of postoperative and in particular cardiac surgery patients was increased, in which postoperative blood loss may have led to lower hemoglobin levels on admission and more RBC transfusions in the course of weaning. These points may help explain the lower hemoglobin level on admission to the weaning center and the lower average hemoglobin concentration in transfused patients.

Anemia is common in the ICU [5], so the observed high prevalence on admission to the weaning center is not surprising. Only 18.8% of transfused patients showed hemoglobin concentrations below 7.0 g/dl prior to RBC administration and the mean pre-transfusion hemoglobin value was 7.5 g/dl (± 0.5 g/dl) which is, at first sight, higher then would be expected from recommendations of current guidelines [18, 21, 22]. This could be due to several reasons. First, the proportion of patients with concomitant coronary artery disease was 35.1%, and a total of 16.1% of patients in the T group had undergone cardiac surgery immediately prior to admission to the weaning center. In fact, current guidelines recommend a transfusion trigger of 8.0 g/dl in this subgroup of patients [18, 22]. Second, the lack of clinical studies regarding RBC administration in prolonged mechanically ventilated patients may have led to transfusions outside of evidence based guidelines. Current guidelines recommend a restrictive transfusion strategy in critically ill patients without concomitant cardiovascular diseases [21, 22], but it is still uncertain whether this can be applied simply to prolonged mechanically ventilated patients. Third, there were 17 patients in the T group with acute bleeding complications. In such patients, decreased hemoglobin values are not always evident and clinical parameters other than hemoglobin level, such as hemodynamic instability or shock, may have led to RBC transfusion [23]. Fourth, there has been a protocolized approach to RBC transfusion in all patients, but since this was a retrospective study, we cannot completely rule out deviations from the protocol [24]. Overall, this may explain the proportion of approximately 68% of patients transfused with a pre-transfusion hemoglobin level of 7–8 g/dl in the present study.

Transfused patients showed worse outcomes compared to non-transfused patients. Again, differences in clinical characteristics may have played a crucial role. Previous work has shown that a higher APACHE-II score in critically ill patients is associated with a longer ICU stay, prolonged mechanical ventilation, and increased mortality [25]. The significantly increased number of ventilator days on admission in the T group may be indicative of a more complicated course in the ICU. The fact that CCI was independently correlated with hospital mortality may indicate the importance of concomitant diseases in terms of survival. However, our results are in line with previous observational studies [12‐15, 26, 27], where RBC administration after adjustment for differences in clinical characteristics between transfused and non-transfused patients, remained independently correlated with worse outcomes. In controlled trials with a well-balanced distribution of patient characteristics in the intervention and control group, comparing a restrictive and a liberal transfusion strategy in different ICU patients, contradictory results were found, which at present do not allow a definitive statement on the impact of RBC transfusion on the above mentioned outcomes [28‐35].

Our results are not indicative of an independent association of RBC transfusion and weaning outcome. Although from a pathophysiological point of view improvement in oxygen transport capacity could facilitate sustained spontaneous breathing, there is currently no evidence, except for a small case series [7], to support the assumption that transfusions in anemic patients may reduce the duration of mechanical ventilation or affect weaning outcome [6].

Patients in the T group showed significantly more nosocomial infections; in particular VAP was more frequent. Previous studies that compared transfused with non-transfused patients in the ICU came to similar conclusions, identifying transfusions as an independent risk factor for nosocomial infections [12‐14, 16, 26, 36, 37]. In the present study, there was no independent correlation of RBC transfusion and the occurrence of infectious complications. This may have different reasons. First, patients in both groups were transfused in the ICU so that a sustained immunomodulatory effect in the course of weaning cannot be ruled out. Second, all RBC transfusions were recorded during the weaning period regardless of the time of onset of nosocomial infection. Thus, some RBC units could have been administered after the occurrence of a nosocomial infection. Third, the only independent risk factor for nosocomial infections was the duration of weaning. A patient with a longer hospital stay is more likely to have a NI than a patient with a short stay, in particular the risk of VAP increases with prolonged ventilation [36]. Since the duration of weaning was significantly longer in the T group, this may help explain the higher percentage of NI and especially of VAP. In keeping with this hypothesis, there was no independent correlation of RBC transfusion with nosocomial infection after adjustment for weaning duration. Fourth, the way in which nosocomial infections were detected may have played a role. Previous work has used different definitions of nosocomial infections [12‐14, 38], a significant proportion has been detected on the basis of clinical criteria, but without isolation of a pathogen. This increases the number of clinical events falsely detected as infection. In the present study, nosocomial infections were recorded based on the revised 2008 CDC criteria [20], validated for surveillance purposes [15, 39]. Based on these criteria, a proof of a pathogen is mandatory for the majority of the diagnoses. Again, this is more likely to underestimate the incidence of NI, because in the ICU in approximately 30% no pathogen detection succeeds [40]. Consequently, the frequencies of nosocomial infections vary between studies [13, 14, 39] and this may well have led to confounding of results within the studies. Looking at the randomized controlled trials that examined the impact of RBC transfusion on nosocomial infection rates, the picture is relatively consistent [30, 33, 41]. So far, no controlled study has proven a strong causal link between transfusions and nosocomial infections. Thus, all these trials probably indicate that surveillance studies may overestimate the risk of RBC administration for nosocomial infections.

Our study has several limitations. Due to the single-center design, the results are probably not transferable to other centers. Our results do not support a causal relationship between RBC administration and the significantly correlated endpoints; this requires a controlled trial. No information was provided on storage time, although all transfused RBCs were stored with saline-adenine-glucose-mannitol (SAG-M) and were leucocyte-depleted. We didn’t check medical records for anticoagulant/ antiplatelet therapy and apart from bleeding complications, other non-infectious complications in the course of weaning, which also could have had an impact on the endpoints we considered, were not recorded.

Ninety-eight percent of prolonged mechanically ventilated patients showed anemia on admission to the weaning center. In multivariate analyses, RBC transfusion was independently correlated with weaning duration and hospital length of stay. There was also a trend toward increased hospital mortality, but there was no independent correlation with weaning outcome or nosocomial infections. Since transfused and non-transfused patients differed significantly regarding their clinical characteristics, RBC transfusion might be an indicator of disease severity rather than directly impacting patient prognosis.