Transfusion in children: epidemiology and 10-year survival of transfusion recipients

SUMMARYObjective To describe the epidemiology of blood transfusion in children: including the incidence of transfusion, the diagnoses leading to transfusion, donor exposure (DE) and post-transfusion survival. Study design and methods The Epidemiology and Survival of Transfusion Recipients (EASTR) Study was a multi-centre epidemiological study with prospective survival monitoring. Cross-sectional sampling of adult and paediatric transfusion recipients in 29 hospitals was used to select three separate cohorts of red cell (RBC), platelet (PLT) and fresh frozen plasma (FFP) recipients between October 2001 and September 2002. This paper presents the analysis of results for children