Intraoperative Blood Transfusion of One or Two Units of Packed Red Blood Cells is Associated with a Fivefold Risk of Stroke in Patients Undergoing Elective Carotid Endarterectomy

OBJECTIVE:

Transfused blood can disrupt the coagulation
cascade. We postulated that packed red blood cell (PRBC) transfusion may
be associated with thromboembolic phenomena. We used propensity
matching to examine the relationship between intraoperative PRBC
transfusion and stroke during carotid endarterectomy (CEA).

METHODS:

We
selected CEA procedures from the American College of Surgeons National
Surgical Quality Improvement Program database from 2005-2009. We
excluded bilateral, redo, and emergent procedures. We used multivariate
logistic regression to identify independent risk factors for stroke. We
then calculated a transfusion propensity score to match patients who
received one or two units of transfused PRBC intraoperatively with
patients of similar risk profiles who had not been transfused.

RESULTS:

Our
criteria resulted in 12,786 elective CEA patients. Of these, 82 (0.6%)
received a one- to two-unit intraoperative transfusion. Thirty-day
stroke rates were 1.4% (179/12,704) in the nontransfused group and 6.1%
(5/82) in the transfused group (Fisher exact test, P = .007). In forward
stepwise multivariable regression of risk factors, only hemiplegia,
stroke history, and transient ischemic attacks were predictive of 30-day
stroke. We used these same variables to calculate transfusion
propensity. We matched 80 transfused patients with 160 controls, thus,
creating two groups with very similar risk profiles differing only by
their transfusion status. In the matched groups, there was a fivefold
increase in the risk of stroke in transfused patients (Fisher exact
test, P = .043)

CONCLUSIONS:

Intraoperative transfusion
of one to two units of PRBCs is associated with a fivefold increase in
stroke risk. This holds true after consideration of stroke risk
variables and operative duration as a surrogate for technical
difficulty. The increased risk may be related to several effects of
transfused blood on the coagulation inflammation cascade.