Anemia may be the most common illness of critically ill patients [
1
,
2
,
3
,
4
]. The majority of critically ill patients are anemic at admission to the intensive
care unit (ICU), and hemoglobin concentrations typically decline by > 0.5 g/dL/day
during the first 3 days of ICU stay. Hemoglobin continues to decline for patients
with sepsis and higher severity of illness [
1
,
5
]. This patient population may be at particular risk of adverse consequences of anemia
given the cardiovascular, respiratory, and metabolic compromise frequently encountered
during critical illness. The etiology of anemia of critical illness is multifactorial,
resulting from phlebotomy, gastrointestinal bleeding, coagulation disorders, blood
loss from vascular procedures, renal failure, nutritional deficiencies, bone marrow
suppression, and impaired erythropoietin response [
[6]
].To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Footnotes
☆This work was supported by the Society of Critical Care Medicine Patient Safety Award, University of Toronto Dean's Fund, The Anemia Institute, and Canadian Blood Services.
Identification
Copyright
© 2004 Elsevier Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
