Recipient side of TRALI: The role of patient neutrophils

Transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI) is a serious and potentially fatal complication of blood transfusions. The fact that TRALI has been the top cause of transfusion-related mortalities in the USA over the last 3 years (2004–06) [1] provides irrefutable evidence of the clinical significance of this syndrome. From this perspective, its importance in transfusion complications surpasses that of blood-borne viruses and bacterial infections. Despite this, we still do not clearly understand the pathophysiology and pathogenesis of TRALI. This paper presents a TRALI patient or recipient perspective by discussing how thorough serological investigations can be utilized to provide evidence that patient neutrophils are the target cell and to identify the implicated donation/s when there are multiple associated donations