We thank Dr. Boucek for his insightful review of degassing as it relates to blood product transfusion and its clinical comparisons with transfusion-associated circulatory overload. Certainly, we acknowledge that the clinical diagnosis of transfusion-associated circulatory overload is one that remains a challenge for clinicians, both in real time and in retrospective clinical research. Indeed, this has been demonstrated by multiple authors in the field and has compounded the difficulties in studying this important transfusion-related complication.
As we learn with interest more about the intricacies and challenges associated with blood product transfusion, the concept of degassing is certainly relevant, and studies directly addressing this phenomenon would be a valuable contribution to the literature. Unfortunately, the present study is not able to effectively address the issue raised.
Once again, we thank Dr. Boucek for his thoughtful insights.
Competing Interests
Dr. Kor receives consulting fees from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (Bethesda, Maryland), as well as royalties from UpToDate (Wolters Kluwer, Alphen aan den Rijn, The Netherlands). The other author declares no competing interests.
