Transfusion-related acute lung injury: A dangerous and underdiagnosed noncardiogenic pulmonary edema

Transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI) is one of the leading causes of death associatedwith transfusion of blood and blood components. The understanding of the etiology andpathophysiology of this syndrome has much improved during the last decades, neverthelessnumerous issues are still unresolved and symptomatic treatment remains the cornerstone ofmedical management. Consequently more attention is directed at primary as well as secondaryprevention. The awareness of the problem within the medical society is still unsatisfactorywhich results in a high number of unrecognized cases or of inaccurate diagnoses one of whichis cardiogenic pulmonary edema. The aim of this review is to make the TRALI syndrome morefamiliar to clinicians and to emphasize how signifi cant proper medical management is both forthe patients presenting TRALI symptoms as well as for future recipients of blood components