Early packed red blood cell transfusion in major trauma patients: Evaluation and comparison of different prediction...

Our study sought to evaluate and compare different prediction scores for massive transfusion in-hospital packed red blood cell (PRBC) transfusions.

Between January 2013 and December 2018, 1843 trauma patients were enrolled in the registry of a level-1 trauma centre. All prehospital and in-hospital variables needed to calculate the Shock Index and RED FLAG, Assessment of Blood Consumption (ABC) and Trauma Associated Severe Hemorrhage (TASH) scores were prospectively collected in the registry. The primary endpoint was the initiation of transfusion within the first hour of the patient's arrival at the hospital.

A total of 1767 patients were included for analysis with a mean age of 43 years (±19) and a mean Injury Severity Score of 15 (±14). The in-hospital TASH score had the highest predictive performance overall (area under the curve [AUC] = 0.925, 95% confidence interval [CI] [0.904-0.946]), while the RED FLAG score (AUC = 0.881, 95% CI [0.854-0.908]) had the greatest prehospital predictive performance compared to the ABC score (AUC = 0.798, 95% CI [0.759-0.837]) and Shock Index (AUC = 0.795, 95% CI [0.752-0.837]). Using their standard thresholds, the RED FLAG score was the most efficient in predicting early transfusion (sensitivity: 87%, specificity: 76%, positive predictive value: 25%, negative predictive value: 99%, Youden index: 0.63).

The RED FLAG score appears to outperform both the ABC score and the Shock Index in predicting early in-hospital transfusion in trauma patients managed by pre-hospital teams. If adopted, this score could be used to give advance warning to trauma centres or even to initiate early transfusion during pre-hospital care.