Sanne de Bruin

108 Chapter 4 Methods Study design A prospective cohort pilot study was conducted to examine current transfusion practices in a 32 bed mixed medical-surgical ICU in a Dutch university hospital. The patient pop- ulation consisted of mixed surgical and medical ICU patients, including cardiothoracic surgery and patients with traumatic brain injury and brain haemorrhages. The data were part of routine care and were extracted from the electronic patient files. During a period of seven consecutive days all consecutive non readmitted patients at the ICU older than 18 years were included. Patients were prospectively followed until discharge with a maximum of 28 days. At the 28 th day, patient outcomes were scored, regardless whether they were discharged (see Figure 1). Figure 1. Study design TheMedical Research Ethics Committee of the Academical Medical Center in Amsterdam judged that this study is not subject to the requirements of the Medical research involv- ing human subjects act. To use patient data, a written informed consent was obtained from the patient or a legal representative, using a deferred informed consent procedure.