National Benchmarks for Proportions of Patients Receiving Blood Transfusions During Pediatric and Congenital Heart Surgery: An Analysis of the STS Congenital Heart Surgery Database

Most centers transfuse PRBCs routinely in higher-risk, younger, and smaller patients, with little variability across centers. For lower-risk operations in older and larger patients, centers are more likely to forgo intraoperative transfusions. This analysis provides national benchmarks for center-level PRBC transfusion rates during pediatric and congenital heart surgery.