Service Member Completion of Laboratory Follow-Up After Emergency Transfusion With Freshly Collected Blood Products.

BACKGROUND: Transfusion of freshly collected blood products (FCBP) is sometimes necessary to save service member (SM) lives in austere deployed environments. Recipients of FCBPs are administratively tracked and offered serial serologic testing via the Armed Services Blood Program "Blood Look Back" (BLB) program to assure early detection of post-transfusion infections. OBJECTIVES: This study evaluates demographic and clinical features influencing SM completion of recommended BLB laboratory follow-up after transfusion with FCBPs. METHODS: Using BLB programmatic data, a retrospective cohort study was performed examining U.S. SM transfusion recipients of FCBPs from June 1, 2006, through December 31, 2012. Multivariate logistic regression was used to examine clinical and demographic factors influencing completion of BLB recommended follow-up. RESULTS: Of eligible subjects, 69% (n = 778) completed 12-month recommended BLB follow-up. As compared to other services, U.S. soldiers demonstrated greatest compliance with BLB recommendations with 71.7% completing recommended follow-up. As compared to the Army, SMs from the Air Force (odds ratio [OR] = 0.35, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.15-0.85), Marine Corps (OR = 0.51, 95% CI = 0.37-0.71), and Navy (OR = 0.29, 95% CI = 0.11-0.74) were less likely to complete recommended follow-up; however, differences in follow-up among the services attenuated over time. Neither the type of FCBP (platelets versus whole blood) nor the volume of FCBP transfused significantly altered SM likelihood of competing recommended follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: More than 2 out of 3 SMs completed recommended 12-month BLB follow-up after transfusion with FCBPs with greater compliance in Army SMs compared to other services. Programmatic changes implemented by the BLB program were temporally associated with increased SM compliance with recommended follow-up as well as reduction of disparities in follow-up observed between the services.

Transfusion-transmissible infections among U.S. military recipients of emergently transfused blood products, June 2006-December 2012.

In austere deployment environments, transfusion of freshly collected blood products from volunteer donors is sometimes necessary to save wounded service members' lives. Because these blood products may have an increased risk of transmitting bloodborne pathogens, recipients are administratively tracked and offered serial serologic testing by the Blood Look Back (BLB) program. This study evaluates the frequency of transfusion-transmissible infections (TTIs) in U.S. service member (SM) recipients of non-FDA-compliant blood products from 1 June 2006 through 31 December 2012. Routine BLB program efforts identified and evaluated 1,127 SM recipients for evidence of seven TTIs for 12 months following transfusion. The Defense Medical Surveillance System was then queried for evidence of provider-diagnosed TTIs and the results were compared. A single, previously reported incident case of human T-lymphotropic virus (rate of 1.3 per 1,000 persons) was the only TTI identified during the study period. Screening of recipients identified two (rate of 1.9 per 1,000 persons) prevalent (pre-transfusion) cases of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, 16 (rate of 15.5 per 1,000 persons) prevalent cases of naturally acquired immunity to HBV and seven (rate of 6.8 per 1,000 persons) prevalent cases of hepatitis C virus infection. No cases of infection with human immunodeficiency virus, syphilis, Trypanosoma cruzi, or West Nile virus were identified.