Effects of transfusion on surviving and nonsurviving postoperative patients.

In the pretransfusion control period, generally, the cardiorespiratory values of the nonsurviving patients were worse than those of the surviving patients. Moreover, the responses of nonsurvivors to a standardized test of therapy generally were less than those of survivors. The increase in oxygen availability to the tissues after blood transfusion in nonsurvivors was almost as great as that of survivors, but the increase in oxygen consumed by nonsurvivors was only about one-half that of survivors. This is of particular importance in the critically ill patient, as reduction in oxygen transport represents a major physiopathologic problem in postoperative deaths.