blood disorders
Precautions and Adverse Reactions During Blood Transfusion
Introduction
 Overview of Blood Transfusion are given to increase the blood's ability to carry oxygen, restore the amount of blood in the body (blood volume), and correct clotting problems. Transfusions are usually safe, but sometimes people have adverse reactions. To minimize the chance of an adverse reaction during a transfusion, health care practitioners take several precautions. Before starting the transfusion, usually a few hours or even a few days beforehand, the person is cross-matched with the donor blood (not done for transfusions of plasma or platelets). After double-checking labels on the bags of blood that are about to be given to ensure the units are intended for that recipient, the health care practitioner gives the blood to the recipient slowly, generally over 1 to 4 hours for each unit of blood. Because most adverse reactions occur during the first 15 minutes of the transfusion, the recipient is closely observed at first. After that, a nurse checks on the recipient periodically and must stop the transfusion if an adverse reaction occurs. Most transfusions are safe and successful. However, mild reactions occur occasionally, and, rarely, severe and even fatal reactions may occur. Themost commonreactions, which occur in 1 to 2% of transfusions, are Fever Allergic reactions Themost seriousreactions are Fluid overload Lung injury Destruction of red blood cells due to a mismatch between the donor's and recipient's blood type Rarereactions include Graft-versus-host disease (whereby transfused cells attack the cells of the person receiving a transfusion) Infections Complications of massive transfusion (poor blood clotting, low body temperature, and low calcium and potassium levels) 