National trends and variability in blood utilization in paediatric cardiac surgery

Red blood cell transfusion is a common practice in paediatric cardiac surgery. Transfusion of red blood cells has been shown to be associated with an increase in morbidity in paediatric patients undergoing cardiac surgery. There is a huge variability in the practice of blood utilization within and across different practices. The aim of this study was to demonstrate the current variability and the trends over the past decade in blood usage among children's hospitals performing paediatric cardiac surgery.