Hi Everyone,

Whole blood, freeze dried plasma, refrigerated or frozen platelets….

On Oct 31st – Nov 3 Graeme, Emelyn and I attended the THOR – THUNDER conference hosted here in Perth at the Rendezvous Hotel in Scarborough.

Who is THOR? In their own words:

The THOR (trauma haemostasis oxygenation resuscitation) organization is a resuscitation and blood network, originating in Norway a decade ago, and now boasting global reach. It has built an avid following of both civilian and military resuscitation clinicians and scientists, covering both pre-hospital and hospital management of critically unwell patients.

The THOR vision is to improve outcomes from traumatic haemorrhagic shock by optimising the acute phase of resuscitation. The mission is to develop and implement the best practices for haemorrhagic shock resuscitation from pre-hospital care right through to the completion of the acute phase of hospital resuscitation.

Thor group website: Trauma Hemostasis and Oxygenation Research Network (rdcr.org)

We sat down to reflect on the different topics that were presented at this fascinating conference. A big shout out to Tania Rogerson for organising such an amazing bunch of speakers. It was great to hear how resuscitation of major haemorrhage is done in other parts of the globe and to be educated about some different resuscitation products that are not available here in Australia.

If you also want to hear a great deep dive into the scientific evidence base for the management of massive haemorrhage then I highly recommend listening to Casey Parker and Justin Morgenstein discussing this topic here (thanks for a great balanced summary of the evidence):

Massive Haemorrhage: Science and Practice – Broome Docs – Nov 2023

Massive hemorrhage: a very deep dive – First10EM – Nov 2023

Evaluation of freeze dried plasma for use in NSW – https://aci.health.nsw.gov.au/networks/trauma/resources/freeze-dried-plasma

There has even been a pilot study comparing whole blood for use in accrete spectrum surgery in San Antonio:

Whole blood transfusion reduces overall component transfusion in cases of placenta accreta spectrum: a pilot program.J Matern Fetal Neonatal Med 2022 Dec;35(25):6455-6460.

The Use of Whole Blood Transfusion in Trauma – Curr Anesthesiol Rep Jan 2022

Warming Up to Cold-stored Platelets Anesthesiology December 2020, Vol. 133, 1161–1163.