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The purpose of this article is to review the relevant evidence regarding the clinical impact of preoperative anemia, current methods of identifying anemia in the surgical population, and the current and upcoming evidence for the treatment modalities targeting preoperative anemia. Preoperative anemia continues to be identified as a contributor to poor outcomes in the surgical population. Identifying anemia typically starts with hemoglobin and mean corpuscular volume. Recent laboratories have also started using iron studies with serum ferritin and transferrin saturation. Oral and IV iron have demonstrated efficacy in treating preoperative anemia in terms of increasing hemoglobin preoperatively and reducing allogeneic blood transfusions. However, few studies have demonstrated an impact on patient outcomes, morbidity, and mortality. Additionally, several meta-analyses have demonstrated the benefit of adding erythropoietin-stimulating agents to improve anemia. Preoperative anemia is very common and is thought to be a contributor to poor outcomes. IV iron is currently recommended by several guidelines as the primary treatment modality for preoperative anemia. Two ongoing studies hope to provide clarity on the effect of IV iron on patient outcomes including morbidity and mortality in cardiac and non-cardiac surgical populations.

SARS-CoV-2 (also known as COVID-19) has been an unprecedented challenge in many parts of the medical field with blood banking being no exception. COVID-19 has had a distinctly negative effect on our blood collection nationwide forcing blood banks, blood centers, and the US government to adopt new policies to adapt to a decreased blood supply as well as to protect our donors from COVID-19. These policies can be seen distinctly in patient blood management and blood bank operations. We are also faced with developing policies and procedures for a nontraditional therapy, convalescent plasma; its efficacy and safety is still not completely elucidated as of yet.