Red cell transfusion in cardiac surgery: what is the right balance?

KEY IDEAS Patients undergoing cardiac surgery are considered at increased risk of anemia-induced tissue hypoxia and transfusion-associated adverse events. Large recent randomized controlled trials addressing lowering the hemoglobin concentration for red cell transfusion (restrictive strategies) for these patients demonstrated slightly inconsistent results. Combining all randomized trials of restrictive strategies for red cell transfusion in cardiac surgery demonstrated that restrictive transfusion strategies are not inferior to liberal strategies.