Methods	Randomised controlled trial
Participants	25 patients were studied prospectively following acute injury and haemorrhage. These patients were randomised to 1 of 2 groups: Liberal group: n = 13; mean age = 46.9 years Restrictive group: n = 12; mean age = 46.5 years
Interventions	Liberal group had their Hct brought up to 40% slowly over a period of several hours by the infusion of packed red cells Restrictive group had their Hct maintained close to 30% by the appropriate administration of packed red cells NB: all patients had sustained a Class III or Class IV haemorrhage and had clinical signs of shock (systolic blood pressure < 90 torr, heart rate >100 bpm or urine output < 20 ml/hr) before entry into the study. Patients were resuscitated according to the clinical protocol of the centre first using crystalloid to re-establish organ perfusion and haemodynamic stability and then giving sufficient packed red cells to achieve a Hct close to 30%. Patients were studied twice a day for 3 days after the period of haemorrhagic shock
Outcomes	Outcomes reported: RBC consumption (units), cardiopulmonary parameters: pulmonary capillary wedge pressure (PCWP), intrapulmonary shunt, tissue oxygenation/perfusion, oxygen consumption/delivery, arterial and venous O2 saturations, arterial and venous O2 contents, cardiac index (CI), heart rate, systemic vascular resistance, left ventricular stroke work index
Notes
Risk Of Bias
Bias	Author’ judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Unclear risk	No information
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	No information
Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	No information
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	Appears to have been complete
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Unclear risk	-
Other bias	Low risk	-