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Red cell transfusion triggers in critically ill patients: time for some new TRICCs?
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Correspondence: Timothy S Walsh twalsh@staffmail.ed.ac.uk
Critical Care 2010, 14:170 doi:10.1186/cc9043
See related research by Sakr et al., http://ccforum.com/content/14/3/R92 and related letters by Sakr and Reinhardt, http://ccforum.com/content/14/4/431 and Müller and Juffermans http://ccforum.com/content/14/1/438
A single center retrospective study is a poor match for a multicenter prospective randomized controlled trial
Nathaniel Usoro (2011-02-24 12:30) University of Calabar, Nigeria
A single center retrospective cohort study cannot rationally be used to overturn the findings and conclusions of a multicenter prospective randomised controlled trial supported by several other studies (Marik & Corwin, 2008). Using such a study to support blood transfusion, a war-time practice that crept into civilian medicine 'through the back door' so to speak, and that is obviously on the way out courtesy of Evidence Based Medicine, is like using retrospective data to prove that analogue technology is superior to digital. New TRICCs or no, blood transfusion remains a hazardous treatment of unproven efficacy and proven adverse outcome (Rawn, 2008). It may yet turn out to be the biggest scandal in modern medical practice.
Competing interests
None declared
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