View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Elsevier - Publisher Connector review Why implement universal leukoreduction? Wafaa Y. Bassuni,a Morris A. Blajchman,b May A. Al-Mosharya From the aCentral Laboratory and Transfusion Services, King Fahad Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and bMcMaster Transfusion Medicine Research Program, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario Correspondence and reprints: Wafaa Bassuni, MD · Consultant, Hematopathology Central Laboratory and Transfusion Services, King Fahad Medical City · PO Box 51988 Riyadh 11553, Saudi Arabia · T: +966-1-470-7119 M: +966-506247993 ·
[email protected] · Accepted for publication February 2008 Hematol Oncol Stem Cel Ther 2008; 1(2): 106-123 The improvement of transfusion medicine technology is an ongoing process primarily directed at increas-i ing the safety of allogeneic blood component transfusions for recipients. Over the years, relatively little attention had been paid to the leukocytes present in the various blood components. The availability of leukocyte removal (leukoreduction) techniques for blood components is associated with a considerable improvement in various clinical outcomes. These include a reduction in the frequency and severity of feb- brile transfusion reactions, reduced cytomegalovirus transfusion-transmission risk, the reduced incidence of alloimmune platelet refractoriness, a possible reduction in the risk of transfusion-associated variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease transmission, as well as reducing the overall risk of both recipient mortality and organ dysfunction, particularly in cardiac surgery patients and possibly in other categories of patients. Internationally, 19 countries have implemented universal leukocyte reduction (ULR) as part of their blood safety policy. The main reason for not implementing ULR in those countries that have not appears to be primarily concerns over costs.