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Which paediatric trauma cases warrant prehospital blood

Characterizing Pediatric Trauma Patients and EMS Agencies That Are Optimal Targets for Prehospital Pediatric Blood Transfusion Programs
Prehospital Emergency Care · Added 27 July 2026

In a nationally representative prehospital sample, many injured children appeared eligible for transfusion.

Study type

Registry

Design

Retrospective analysis of national prehospital registry data

Participants

2,492,731 paediatric encounters; 34,221 potentially transfusion-eligible

Main finding

1.37% of encounters met physiological transfusion criteria; blood was given in 669 encounters overall and to 1.01% of eligible children; only 240/16,848 (1.4%) agencies provided blood to children

Caveat

US registry data with physiological proxy criteria; potential misclassification of eligibility

Bottom line

Context only

Learning goal

Weigh the benefits and practical barriers of prehospital blood transfusion for injured children in my practice.

More

• Topic: Paediatrics
• Daily scan: 27 July 2026

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