ABSTRACT
Although more than three centuries have passed since the recognition that transfusion can be associated with deadly complications, it is only in the last 10-15 years that pulmonary injury has been generally appreciated as a possible transfusion outcome. In fact, before the mid-1980s the only well-recognized manifestations of pulmonary injury from transfusion were anaphylactic reactions and circulatory overload. Unfortunately, the respiratory system can be compromised by another, immunologically driven type of reaction. Such reactions were originally designated by a variety of descriptive terms, including noncardiogenic pulmonary edema (1), allergic pulmonary edema (2), hypersensitivity reaction (3), and leukoagglutinin transfusion reaction (4). Only in the last decade has there been a broader appreciation that this type of lung injury has an immunological basis.
