Blood product use in paediatric trauma: lessons from the TARN data

Trauma contributes significantly to childhood morbidity and mortality. Uncontrolled haemorrhage leading to cardiovascular collapse remains the leading cause of preventable death in paediatric trauma. Evidence to support the early and accurate identification of paediatric trauma patients requiring blood products is growing. Consensus guidelines advocating for more liberal blood product use based on the concept of damage control resuscitation and the introduction of risk predictor tools to identify children requiring resuscitation with blood products may have altered use in recent years. We aimed to identify trends in blood product prescribing practice in paediatric trauma resuscitation over the last decade.

In this retrospective, observational study, data were abstracted from Trauma Audit Research Network (TARN) from sites in England, Wales and Northern Ireland over a 10-year period (2012-2021). Eligible cases were defined as injured children or young people aged less than 16 years who received blood products, including in the prehospital environment.

During the study period, 2.5% (n=678) of injured children received blood products within 24 hours of hospital arrival, including the prehospital environment. Blood product administration over the study period remained largely unchanged (p=0.190). Over the 10-year period, we saw a significant increase in blood product use among paediatric trauma patients of increasing age and those with penetrating injuries (p<0.03). By contrast, there was a decrease in blood product use across the same 10-year period among paediatric trauma related to road traffic collisions (p=0.01). On analysing the paediatric trauma population that received blood products, the distribution across locations can be seen as follows: 60.5% received blood products at the scene of the incident, 25% in the ED and 12.8% in critical care settings. The most common blood product given was packed red blood cells (84%), with fresh frozen plasma, platelets and cryoprecipitate administered in 9.7%, 2.4% and 1.6% of cases, respectively.

UK trauma centres have not significantly changed blood product use in paediatric trauma over the last decade. Monitoring and understanding national blood product use in paediatric trauma is integral to understanding trends and current practice.