Dr. Ruchika Goel

Patients who receive red blood cell (RBC) transfusions before, during or immediately after surgery are twice as likely to develop life-threatening, postoperative blood clots as those who don’t undergo RBC transfusions, according to a new study by Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian researchers.

Blood transfusions are historically one of the most common—and most overused—hospital procedures in the United States.