[Blood transfusions in the treatment of chronic anemia]

Blood transfusion is a not causal therapeutic option in symptomatic anemia. For long time, since the discovery of the blood circulation and the first experiments in transfusion over 300 years ago, blood transfusions were the only possibility to improve the tissue oxygenation. Pretransfusion testing of the blood components as well as of the donor and the recipient has made transfusion of allogeneic blood increasingly safe. Despite transfusion reactions still do occur, they have considerably diminished, inter alia by the introduction of hemovigilance systems and decreasing the hemoglobin value used as transfusion trigger, hence performing less unnecessary transfusions. In chronic anemia, usually accepted transfusion triggers today are 70 g/l hemoglobin in patients without comorbidities. The use of erythropoetin stimulating agents is widely used and should - after a careful examination of the anemia - be considered early in the treatment plan in patients with chronic anemic.