The reintroduction of nonleukoreduced blood: would patients and clinicians agree?

Abstract

With today’s economic uncertainty, hospitals continue to look for new ways to reduce costs in a safe fashion. Some hospitals currently providing only leukoreduced blood have considered providing nonleukoreduced blood components for their patients, presumably assuming that nonleukoreduced blood is less expensive than leukoreduced blood. This commentary examines the safety of the reintroduction of nonleukoreduced blood components in hospitals that previously implemented universal leukoreduction. Because universal leukoreduction has been in place in most hospitals for almost a decade, 1 many clinicians have never had to weigh the risks and benefits of leukoreduced and nonleukoreduced products, and currently they are not required to decide whether nonleukoreduced components would be seriously detrimental for their patients. In the past there was debate about whether universal leukoreduction was cost-effective, but the debate did not include a balancing of risks and benefits, because no true risks have been identified (aside from device failures). 2-7