Home-based blood transfusion therapy: a systematic review

Abstract

Home care is a healthcare alternative to hospitalisation. Different types of procedures are performed at home care services, such as home transfusion of blood products. However, home blood transfusion is not fully implemented and there is a great lack of knowledge about it. The aims of this study were thus to assess the safety and effectiveness of home blood transfusions and patient acceptance and satisfaction. A systematic literature review was conducted in the main biomedical databases. We included all studies that covered patients who had received a home blood transfusion, regardless of their baseline diagnosis. The literature search yielded 290 studies, 14 of which were included in this study as they met the predefined criteria. The main patient profile of a home-transfusion recipient was a person with anaemia associated with other diseases. Overall incidence of severe adverse events was 0.05%. No studies evaluated the effectiveness of home versus hospital transfusions. One study showed that 51% of patients would be willing to receive home transfusions. Home blood transfusion appears to be a feasible, safe, and well-accepted procedure. Existing studies are of low quality, however, and this is an important limitation when it comes to drawing definitive benefit–risk conclusions