Fresh frozen plasma transfusion fails to influence the hemostatic balance in critically ill patients with a coagulopathy: reply

We thank Dr. Tripodi and colleagues for their interest in our recently published paper in JTH on the effect of plasma infusion in critically ill patients with a prolonged international normalized ratio (INR). They elaborate on the clinical practice of plasma transfusion in patients with coagulopathy due to liver cirrhosis. In this patient group, they showed in an ex vivo study design that adding normal plasma to plasma from patients with cirrhosis resulted in shortening of prothrombin time (PT), but did not affect thrombin generation. These results are similar to findings in our clinical trial in critically ill patients, and we agree these findings altogether suggest that plasma infusion in a dose of 12 ml/kg does not induce a pro-coagulant state. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved