[Awareness of risk for transfusion reactions important for appropriate treatment]

Blood transfusions are still associated with risk for adverse events despite a long tradition for improvement of safety. The incidence of reactions is reported to be about 78/100 000 transfusions with 25 % of these being serious. Some types of reactions are rare and may thus be unrecognised.  Transfusion reactions are grouped into non-infectious acute reactions (such as acute haemolytic reactions due to ABO incompatibility or Transfusion Related Circulatory Overload (TACO)) and delayed reactions. Infectious complications in transfusion medicine include emerging viruses like Hepatitis E and West Nile-Virus, not routinely tested.  Awareness is important for appropriate diagnosis and treatment. Transfusion reactions should be reported to and investigated by the transfusion medicine department issuing the product. It is mandatory to report serious transfusion reactions to the competent authority.