Management of severe peri-operative bleeding: Guidelines from the European Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care: Second update 2022.

BACKGROUND: Management of peri-operative bleeding is complex and involves multiple assessment tools and strategies to ensure optimal patient care with the goal of reducing morbidity and mortality. These updated guidelines from the European Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care (ESAIC) aim to provide an evidence-based set of recommendations for healthcare professionals to help ensure improved clinical management. DESIGN: A systematic literature search from 2015 to 2021 of several electronic databases was performed without language restrictions. Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) was used to assess the methodological quality of the included studies and to formulate recommendations. A Delphi methodology was used to prepare a clinical practice guideline. RESULTS: These searches identified 137 999 articles. All articles were assessed, and the existing 2017 guidelines were revised to incorporate new evidence. Sixteen recommendations derived from the systematic literature search, and four clinical guidances retained from previous ESAIC guidelines were formulated. Using the Delphi process on 253 sentences of guidance, strong consensus (>90% agreement) was achieved in 97% and consensus (75 to 90% agreement) in 3%. DISCUSSION: Peri-operative bleeding management encompasses the patient's journey from the pre-operative state through the postoperative period. Along this journey, many features of the patient's pre-operative coagulation status, underlying comorbidities, general health and the procedures that they are undergoing need to be taken into account. Due to the many important aspects in peri-operative nontrauma bleeding management, guidance as to how best approach and treat each individual patient are key. Understanding which therapeutic approaches are most valuable at each timepoint can only enhance patient care, ensuring the best outcomes by reducing blood loss and, therefore, overall morbidity and mortality. CONCLUSION: All healthcare professionals involved in the management of patients at risk for surgical bleeding should be aware of the current therapeutic options and approaches that are available to them. These guidelines aim to provide specific guidance for bleeding management in a variety of clinical situations.

General or regional anaesthesia for postpartum haemorrhage-A national population-based cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Anaesthesia is required to assist the treatment of postpartum haemorrhage (PPH) when manual removal of the placenta or emptying of the uterine cavity is required. The choice between general or regional anaesthesia may depend upon factors such as existing epidural, airway, hypovolaemia, and tradition. METHODS: Data from a randomized controlled trial of PPH (FIB-PPH) was used to reveal differences between delivery centres. In addition, national data of 5,601 PPH procedures requiring anaesthesia during 2010-2015 was collected from the Danish Medical Birth Registry, the National Danish Patient Registry, and the Danish Anaesthesia Database. The aim is to describe the variation in choice of anaesthesia for treatment of PPH. RESULTS: Data from the randomized trial showed large differences in practice between centres not explained by physiological factors. Using national Danish registry data, we show that large delivery centres as compared to small centres prefer regional anaesthesia for PPH procedures in opposed to general anaesthesia. Sevoflurane was used despite it causing uterine relaxation. The use of general anaesthesia was associated with younger parturients, larger blood loss, and larger Body-Mass Index. Aspiration was recorded in one case (0.02%). In the postoperative care-unit general anaesthesia was associated with a shorter stay, but also higher pain score at admission. CONCLUSION: Practice varies immensely between delivery centres with large centres preferring regional anaesthesia. Difference in practice might be explained by level of experience, here large centres might be more confident using regional anaesthesia. Knowledge is being extrapolated from literature on caesarean sections. Future studies should address the optimal choice of anaesthesia for PPH procedures.

Management of severe perioperative bleeding: guidelines from the European Society of Anaesthesiology: First update 2016.

: The management of perioperative bleeding involves multiple assessments and strategies to ensure appropriate patient care. Initially, it is important to identify those patients with an increased risk of perioperative bleeding. Next, strategies should be employed to correct preoperative anaemia and to stabilise macrocirculation and microcirculation to optimise the patient's tolerance to bleeding. Finally, targeted interventions should be used to reduce intraoperative and postoperative bleeding, and so prevent subsequent morbidity and mortality. The objective of these updated guidelines is to provide healthcare professionals with an overview of the most recent evidence to help ensure improved clinical management of patients. For this update, electronic databases were searched without language restrictions from 2011 or 2012 (depending on the search) until 2015. These searches produced 18 334 articles. All articles were assessed and the existing 2013 guidelines were revised to take account of new evidence. This update includes revisions to existing recommendations with respect to the wording, or changes in the grade of recommendation, and also the addition of new recommendations. The final draft guideline was posted on the European Society of Anaesthesiology website for four weeks for review. All comments were collated and the guidelines were amended as appropriate. This publication reflects the output of this work.

Prediction of postpartum blood transfusion--risk factors and recurrence.

OBJECTIVE: The aim was to find clinically useful risk factors for postpartum transfusion and to assess the joint predictive value in a population of women with a first and second delivery. METHODS: All Danish women with a first and second delivery from January 2001 to September 2009 who gave birth in a hospital that reported transfusion of red blood cells to a national database: A total of 96 545 women were included. RESULTS: Retained placental tissue explained more than all other risk factors in vaginal deliveries. Retained placental tissue at first delivery was associated with postpartum transfusion at a second vaginal delivery, and may also be used as an early predictor in parallel with a history of either placental abruption, postpartum transfusion or caesarean delivery. The positive predictive values of having more than one risk factor was low (2.2%-2.7%). CONCLUSIONS: Prediction of postpartum transfusion is difficult. Retained placental tissue is the strongest predictor of postpartum blood transfusion in vaginal deliveries. Retained placental tissue is usually diagnosed for the first time when the bleeding starts, which limits the clinical value of prediction. We need tools for an early diagnosis of retained placenta to intervene early before transfusion is needed.