IRONMAN – The Bottom Line #FOAMed #FOAMcc

Thanks to the guys at the Bottom Line again for their analysis of this interesting trial.

Please see here for what they say and see here for the IRONMAN trial.

Thoughts from us on this….

There will certainly be less Guinness coloured stools amongst your ITU patients now!!

It is rather a shame this made no difference, as we all know what the related complications of RBC transfusion are.

Blood transfusion in hospitals is certainly an area that can be taken with a pinch of salt at times. However, it is clear from various trials of late, that people are continuously trying to find alternatives. The question is, why are we obsessed with finding blood and blood product substitutes.

I think the answer probably lies within the complication and risk profile associated with blood transfusions and these are certainly drummed into us all with gusto; with good reason too.

Within the military setting certainly, there is a plentiful supply of experimental data and also a plentiful supply of fit and well volunteers amongst whom blood product substitutes may be trialled.

But, until we find an adequate substitute that is both safe, cheap and easy to administer to patients… We are going to be fighting a losing battle it seems.

At the end of the day, there will never be a tablet one can take, an IV infusion one can have, or something that is cheap enough to replace what is physiologically so ingenious!

or will there…..