ABSTRACT
The single most important principle to understand in transfusing red blood cells (RBC) to the non-bleeding patient is the integration o f evidence-based thresholds with clinical signs and symptoms. In this section, I will review one such trigger for patients in the intensive care unit (IC U ) setting as defined by two landmark clinical trials and also provide reasonable triggers for other, more stable patients. As the former may be lower than what you are used to, I ’ll review it in some detail.
