Subject Area:	Medicine and Dentistry
More specific subject area:	Critical Illness
Protocol name:	RESUS Transfusion Protocol
Reagents/tools:	Twenty six Merino ewes; Lipopolysaccharide (E.coli serotype O55:B5); Ovine blood for transfusion; Marquette Solar 8000 haemodynamic monitoring system; Oxford Optronix OxyFlow and OxyLite perfusion and oxygenation monitoring system; Powerlad 16/30 ADInstruments Data Acquisition System; ISCUS Flex Microdialysis Analyser; Philips ie.33 echo scanner and TomTec analysis software
Experimental design:	A randomised pre-clinical trial will be conducted in twenty-six, three-year old, non-pregnant Merino ewes. A two hit-hypothesis examining firstly the global effects of sepsis and secondly the attendant volume expansion effects resulting from blood transfusion will be explored. Sixteen sheep will undergo sepsis compared with non-septic controls (n = 10). Sheep will be divided into equal halves in the experimental (n = 8) and control groups (n = 5) with each sub-group receiving ovPRBC transfusion that is either fresh (≤5 days) or stored (≥30 days)
Trial registration:	PCTE0000156
Ethics:	Ethical approval has been sought and obtained from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Office of Research Ethics and Integrity (Certificate number 1400000032).