Other studies have reported that trauma patients [45, 46] , including those with burns [47] , may have increased mortality rates associated with receiving blood transfusions. In contrast, RBC transfusion has been reported to be associated with improved outcomes in patients with traumatic brain injury or subarachnoid hemorrhage [48, 49] . In the early resuscitation of patients with severe sepsis, implementation of a therapeutic protocol that included RBC transfusion to obtain a hematocrit > 30% was associated with a significant reduction in hospital mortality [50] .