The FDA has released the summary for 2009 of transfused-related fatalities. Of 74 transfusion-recipient fatality reports, they determined that 44 of the fatalities were transfusion-related, 22 of the fatalities were cases in which transfusion could not be ruled out as the cause of the fatality, and 8 of the fatalities were unrelated to the transfusion.
Interestingly, transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI) and transfusion-associated circulatory overload (TACO) accounted for the highest numbers of reported fatalities, followed by non-ABO hemolytic transfusion reactions.
Another finding of note is that there were no reports of fatal microbial infections associated with RBCs, compared to 5 reports in FY2008, which were all due to Babesia infections.
A pdf of the report can be downloaded at the link above.
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