Non-infectious Causes of Blood Transfusion Reactions: A Tertiary Hospital Review

Objective: Blood transfusion is a life-saving medical intervention. Transfusion reactions are undesirable consequences of this intervention and may present with various findings. Using data from our hospital and hemovigilance procedures that included electronic recording, our aim was to evaluate non-infectious transfusion reactions.Methods: We present reaction data from electronic recordings of blood products transfused between January 2017 and December 2021. Gender, age, symptoms and findings, blood pressure, fever, respiratory and heart rates before and after transfusion were analyzed according to reaction types. Reactions were classified according to clinicians definition. Analysis of the data was carried out using the SPSS 25 package program.Results: While allergic transfusion reactions and febril nonhemolitic transfusion reactions were common transfusion reactions, the most common reaction products were fresh frozen plasma, erythrocyte suspension and platelet suspension respectively. Chills, restlessness, fever, were common signs and symptoms. While allergic transfusion reactions were higher in pediatric patients, there was no difference between genders. The high number of patients who had a previous transfusion among the patients who developed a reaction suggested that exposure did not reduce the risk. More notifications were made after the use of electronic records than in previous years.Conclusion: Electronically recorded hemovigilance data can contribute to an increase in accurate classification and reporting of transfusion reactions and monitoring of blood processes.