• Axel Pruss, Ulrich Kalus, Hartmut Radtke, Jürgen Koscielny, Bärbel Baumann-Baretti, Dominik Balzer, Thomas Dörner, Abdulgabar Salama, and Holger Kiesewetter.
• Institute for Transfusion Medicine (Tissue Bank), University Hospital Charité, Campus Charité Mitte, Schumannstrasse 20/21, D-10117 Berlin, Germany. axel.pruss@charite.de
• Transfus Apher Sci. 2004 Feb 1; 30 (1): 41-6.

BackgroundUniversal leukodepletion of blood components to prevent acute non-hemolytic transfusion reactions (NHTRs) is still a subject of debate.Patients And MethodsTransfusion-associated NHTRs observed at our hospital in the last 6 years were retrospectively analyzed. Buffy-coat depleted red blood cells (bc-RBCs), and if indicated, leucodepleted post-storage (ld-RBCs) were initially used. In April 1997, universal leukodepletion was implemented at our hospital, and thereafter only prestorage ld-RBCs were used. All platelet concentrates transfused during this time were prestorage filtered single-donor apheresis platelets (SDAPs).ResultsA total of 163,090 blood products were transfused from April 1995 to April 2001 (bc-RBC: n=34,040 units; ld-RBC: n=66,967; SDAP: n=14,516; FFP: n=47,567). The number of post-transfusion febrile NHTRs occurring with each blood product was 65 (0.19%) for bc-RBCs, 8 (0.16%) for post-storage ld-RBCs, 16 (0.03%) for prestorage ld-RBCs, 16 (0.11%) for SDAPs, and 10 (0.02%) for FFP. Allergic reactions (n=116) were most frequently observed after SDAP transfusion (0.32%) and occurred at a similarly low rate after transfusion of all other blood components (0.03-0.08%).ConclusionIn conclusion, acute NHTRs rarely occur after the use of leukodepleted blood components. Prestorage appears to be more effective than post-storage leukodepletion in preventing febrile reactions following a blood transfusion.

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