Intravenous immune globulin: transfusion-related lung injury.(Safety and Efficacy Issues)

Canada -- Transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI) is a clinical syndrome that presents as acute hypoxaemia and noncardiogenic pulmonary oedema during or within 6 hours after blood transfusion (1,2). TRALI is an important cause of transfusion-associated death, even though it is probably still under-diagnosed and underreported (2). There have been few literature reports of TRALI in patients administered intravenous immune globulin (IVIG) (3). The Canadian product monograph for Gamunex[R] (human IVIG 10%) recommends that WIG recipients be monitored for pulmonary adverse reactions (4).

Health Canada has received a report of a 38-year-old man who had received …