English Translation of the Dutch Blood Transfusion Guideline 2011
24 April 2012The Dutch Blood Transfusion Guideline 2011 consists of recommendations for the blood transfusion practice and the underlying arguments for these recommendations. They were created through study of the literature and subsequent opinion forming within a multi-disciplinary working group with delegated representatives from the various professional organizations involved in blood transfusion.
The aim of the 2011 revision was to update the multi-disciplinary guideline on transfusion policy of blood and blood components from 2004 in order to promote the quality of blood transfusion and the skills of employees involved in it, with a focus on the hospital situation.
The working method consisted of the evaluation of the relevance of research data published since 2003, subjects that were not discussed in the previous version and developments in the social debate, and incorporation of these matters into the new guideline..The recommendations were formulated in order to stimulate a more uniform clinical thinking and acting in the field of blood transfusion.
A set of internal quality indicators based on the guideline has been developed, aimed at stimulating the effective and safe use of blood components.
In order to improve the accessibility, a search function has been implemented from the table of contents in the PDF guideline document. When the reader clicks the cursor on the desired paragraph in the table of contents, he/she will be linked to the relevant paragraph. Amended and new recommendations compared to the previous version of the Blood Transfusion guideline have been marked in the text in turquoise and yellow respectively. We have also used colours to mark a number of different sections, so that various types of users (pediatricians, nurses and laboratory employees) can find the sections relevant to them more easily.
Since we made significant use of foreign guidelines (usually in English) in the creation of this guideline, we thought it would be a good idea to make our guideline accessible to foreign colleagues by translating the guideline into English. We are extremely grateful to the Sanquin Blood Supply Foundation for financing this translation.
The English translation of the Dutch Blood Transfusion Guideline 2011 can be downloaded at
http://www.sanquin.nl/en/products-services/blood-products/transfusion-guideline/
or
http://www.diliguide.nl/document/7584
We hope that many foreign colleagues will enjoy reading this English translation of the Dutch Blood Transfusion guideline.
On behalf of the working group for revision of the Dutch Blood Transfusion Guideline 2011
René de Vries and Fred Haas, Chairmen.
