In Response.

September 2019 • Volume 129 • Number 3 www.anesthesia-analgesia.org e111 groups in the pooled studies. Also, there was no description of antifibrinolytic drug use in several studies, even though these drugs are now used ubiquitously in cardiac surgery. Finally, increased use of point-of-care viscoelastic coagulation testing has helped to reduce RBC transfusion in contemporary practice, and this is not reflected in many of the studies in the meta-analysis. Taken together, we feel that the efficacy of erythropoietin demonstrated in the metaanalysis may not translate into comparable gains in contemporary practice. We suggest that erythropoietin should be prescribed individually based on each hospital’s patient population, clinical experience, and reimbursement system.