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 associated with transfusion of blood and blood components. The understanding of the etiology and pathophysiology of this syndrome has much improved during the last decades, nevertheless numerous issues are still unresolved and symptomatic treatment remains the cornerstone of medical management. Consequently more attention is directed at primary as well as secondary prevention. The awareness of the problem within the medical society is still unsatisfactory which results in a high number of unrecognized cases or of inaccurate diagnoses one of which is cardiogenic pulmonary edema. The aim of this review is to make the TRALI syndrome more familiar to clinicians and to emphasize how significant proper medical management is both for the patients presenting TRALI symptoms as well as for future recipients of blood components.