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VCURES Director Lectures on Topic of Blood Transfusion at Oxford University
On October 15, 2004, Bruce D. Spiess, MD, FAHA, Director of VCURES and Professor and Vice Chair and of the VCU Department of Anesthesiology was the keynote speaker at the Annual Meeting of the Association of Cardiac Anesthetists of Britain and Ireland . The meeting this year was held at Oxford University , Oxford , United Kingdom . The subject matter for the entire meeting was blood transfusion and blood shortages. With mad cow disease problems in Western Europe , blood shortages and disease transmission are timely and politically charged issues. Dr Spiess' presentation was entitled :"Risks of Blood Transfusion: Focus on Outcomes".
Recent data has shown that patients who are transfused tend to have increased rates of infection, renal failure, longer hospital stays, and higher mortalities. Work at VCURES focusing upon limiting blood transfusions has shown that such strategies result in better outcomes for patients undergoing cardiac surgery and save significant financial and medical resources (including blood). The British National Health System (NHS) will adopt a blood conservation program within the next two years largely patterned after the successful program being developed by VCURES. Further information regarding the blood transfusion reduction program can be found in recent publications resulting from the VCURES program: Spiess BD. Blood Conservation: why Bother? J Cardiothoracic Vasc Anesth 2004;18:s1-5 and Green J: Blood Conservation in Cardiac Surgery: The Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Experience. J Cardiothoracic Vasc Anesth 2004;s18-23.
VCURES has embarked on an aggressive transfusion medicine laboratory and clinical research program, which includes developing new monitoring techniques to determine the need for transfusion, developing new methods of screening the safety of blood and blood products, and developing novel blood substitutes.
For more information please contact Dr. Bruce Spiess at bdspiess@vcu.edu
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