Risk and Benefit of Restrictive Transfusion Strategies in Neurocritically Ill Patients

Acute neurological injuries, especially traumatic brain injuries and subarachnoid hemorrhages, often affect young and previously healthy patients with years of active life to come. Mortality remains very high following any severe acute brain injury, and importantly, a significant proportion of survivors have long-term sequelae that prevent them from independent living. Despite proliferation of dedicated neurocritical care units and improvements in patient management over past decades, very few interventions clearly improve patient-oriented, clinically significant long-term functional outcomes. Any interventions that could improve functional status in these patients may have a substantial impact.