Blood Component Use in Critical Care in Patients with COVID‐19 Infection: A Single Centre Experience

Doyle, Andrew J; Danaee, Anicee; I Furtado, Charlene; Miller, Scott; Maggs, Tim; Robinson, Susan E; Retter, Andrew

There has been a significant surge in admissions to critical care during the COVID‐19 pandemic. At present, the demands on blood components have not been described. We reviewed their use during the first 6 weeks of the outbreak from 3(rd) March 2020 in a tertiary‐level critical care department providing veno‐venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (vv‐ECMO). 265 patients were reviewed ‐ 235 not requiring ECMO and 30 requiring vv‐ECMO. In total, 50 patients required blood components during their critical care admission. Red cell concentrates were the most frequently transfused component in COVID‐19 infected patients with higher rates of use during vv‐ECMO. The use of fresh frozen plasma, cryoprecipitate and platelet transfusions was low in a period prior to the use of convalescent plasma.