The need for blood products in patients with crush syndrome

Crush syndrome is typical for multisystem involvement because of coexisting major surgical and/or medical problems. Treatment of patients with crush syndrome following mass disasters is even more problematic as hundreds of patients are admitted to hospitals and need therapy at once. In this study, the authors evaluated the need of blood and blood products in patients hospitalized due to crush syndrome after the Marmara earthquake in a single center

The clinical and laboratory variables regarding 60 patients with crush syndrome (30 males and 30 females; mean age: 31.3 +/- 13.8 years) hospitalized at a tertiary center that were documented on the preformed questionnaires distributed by International Society of Nephrology Task Force at the aftermath of the earthquake were analyzed by Statistical Package for Social Sciences for Windows software version 13.0 (SPSS Inc, Chicago, IL, USA).

Thirty-nine patients (16 males and 23 females; mean age: 30.1 +/- 12.6 years) were transfused with 589 U of blood, 840 U of fresh frozen plasma, and 172 U of human albumin during the hospitalization. Most of the transfusions were performed during the first week after the hospitalization.

As a result, the preparation for disasters should also include logistic plans for obtaining sufficient amount of blood and blood products to be used in the early aftermath of the event.