Resumen
The transfusion of red blood cells (RBC) in patients undergoing major elective cranial surgery is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. This study sought to identify the clinical outcome of RBC transfusions in skull base and non-skull base meningioma patients including the identification of risk factors for RBC transfusion. Data underline that preoperative anaemia rate was significantly higher in transfused patients (17.7%) compared to patients without RBC transfusion (6.2%). We could further show that RBC transfusion was associated with increased postoperative complications and increased hospital length of stay. After multivariate analyses, risk factors for RBC transfusion were preoperative American Society of Anaesthesiologists (ASA) physical status score, tumor size, surgical time, and intraoperative blood loss. We concluded that blood loss due to large tumors or localization near large vessels are the main triggers for RBC transfusion in meningioma patients paired with a potential preselection that masks the effect of preoperative anaemia in multivariate analysis. So far, this has not been investigated in a large cohort (n = 423) of skull base and non-skull base meningioma patients.