Abstract

 Background and Objectives

  Cancer patients due to bone marrow suppression, sepsis, and other relevant complications require appropriate blood components for transfusion. However, there are risks of transfusion reactions. These reactions are influenced by many factors varying across different geographic regions and medical centers. This study was performed to determine incidence of early transfusion reactions and their clinical symptoms and signs in cancer patients, and to calculate the correlation of these adverse reactions with some demographic data and some specifications of blood components.

  Materials and Methods

  In this descriptive study, 39 reactions from 4023 blood transfusion attempts were assessed. Patients were monitored for symptoms and changes in vital signs within 24 hours following transfusion. Data analysis was performed by descriptive and inferential statistics (X² and ANOVA).

 Results

  The majority of reactions belonged to platelets (56.43%) and packed cells (43.58%). The most common symptoms were shown to be rigors (2.72%), and fever (2.33%). The incidence rate was estimated to be 2.7% for FNHTR, and 2.1% for allergic reactions. Haptoglobin deficiency was found in 0.8% of FNHTR cases. A correlation was observed between sex and history of previous reactions (p=0.048, p=0.04, respectively) with blood transfusion reactions.

 Conclusions

  These findings indicated that incidence of blood transfusion reactions and clinical symptoms correlated with other studies. The incidence of reactions in women and individuals with previous history of repeated blood transfusions was shown to be greater. Transfusion of packed cell was associated with allergic reactions (p=0.04), and high platelet lifetime associated with pulmonary reactions (p=0.044).

 Key words: Blood transfusion, Transfusion reaction, Cancer patients