Abstract
Over the past decade hospitals throughout the United States have experienced a dramatic increase in utilization of freshfrozen plasma (FFP). Since this has paralleled a corresponding increase in transfusion of packed red blood cells in relation to whole blood, it may be inferred that much of the FFP is being transfused as a volume expander, rather than as a source of clotting factors or plasma proteins. Use of plasma in this manner not only increases the cost of transfusion, but also increases the risk of transfusion-transmitted disease. Therefore, the recent Consensus Development Conference on this subject, convened by the National Institutes of Health and reported in this issue ofThe Journal,<sup>1</sup>was both timely and appropriate. The conference concluded that there was "little scientific evidence to support the increasing use of FFP," especially as a volume expander, as there are safer products that will achieve the same effect. While
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