Blood Products in the Management of Abnormal Placentation

Abstract

A critical tool in the successful management of patients with abnormal placentation is an established massive transfusion protocol designed to rapidly deliver blood products in obstetrical and surgical hemorrhage. Spurred by trauma research and an understanding of consumptive coagulopathy, the past 2 decades have seen a shift in volume resuscitation from an empiric, crystalloid-based method to balanced, targeted transfusion therapy. The present article reviews patient blood management in abnormal placentation, beginning with optimizing the patient's status in the antenatal period to the laboratory assessment and transfusion strategy for blood products at the time of hemorrhage.