Blood Transfusion Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Blood Transfusion, including details on blood donation, blood types, leukemia.

Transfusion related acute lung injury: a pediatric perspective.

Sanchez R, Toy P

Department of Pediatrics, University of California-San Francisco, 505 Parnassus Street, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA. rsanchez@itsa.ucsf.edu

Transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI) is the leading cause of transfusion-associated mortality. TRALI occurs in children and adults, but the syndrome has not been reviewed from a pediatric perspective. We reviewed the literature on TRALI from a pediatric perspective. TRALI has been documented in pediatric patients, especially in the setting of hematologic malignancy. Additional TRALI cases have been reported in pediatric patients with a variety of diagnoses. TRALI is likely to be much more common than previously appreciated in the pediatric patient population. TRALI should be considered in the differential diagnosis of all pediatric patients who develop new acute lung injury (ALI) or acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) during or within six hours of a blood product transfusion. When a case of TRALI is suspected, a transfusion reaction report to the blood bank is important to initiate the investigation and identify the implicated donor.

Published 19 July 2005 in Pediatr Blood Cancer, 45(3): 248-55.
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