Venous thromboembolic events associated with blood product administration in an era of whole blood use

Abstract

Background: The risks associated with blood product administration and venous thromboembolic events remains unclear. We sought to determine which blood products were associated with the development of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE). Methods: We analyzed data from patients ≥18 years of age in the Trauma Quality Improvement Program (TQIP) database that received ≥1 blood product and survived ≥24 ​h. Results: There were 42,399 that met inclusion, of whom, 2086 had at least one VTE event. In our multivariable logistic regression model, we found that WB had a unit odds ratio (uOR) of 1.05 (95 ​% CI 1.02–1.08) for DVT and 1.08 (1.05–1.12) for PE. Compared to WB, platelets had a higher uOR for DVT of 1.09 (1.04–1.13) but similar uOR for PE of 1.08 (1.03–1.14). Conclusions: We found an association of both DVT and PE with early whole blood and platelets.