Transfusion-associated anxiety: Recognised and overcome in an adolescent child

A 12-year-old boy presented to our palliative care cancer clinic with Ewing Sarcoma and anaemia in failure. Transfusion reactions were noted during several blood transfusions, which manifested as acute onset of breathlessness, mild chest pain, sweating, general discomfort, increased heart rate, respiratory rate, and blood pressure. All the possible causes of transfusion reaction were ruled out, other than transfusion-associated anxiety resembling transfusion reaction. In this case, adequate reassurance, counselling about the blood transfusion, distraction techniques, and the visual technique of masking the blood bag with black polythene foil helped overcome the patient's anxiety during the blood transfusion, and was uneventful henceforth. Since transfusion-associated anxiety is not an established and well-studied aspect of transfusion medicine yet, there is a need to have high clinical suspicion to recognise, assess, and forthwith prevent any such transfusion reactions without any delay.