Background
Safe transfusion of blood requires the use of
compatible blood products. Yet, despite rigorous
testing requirements, acute hemolytic transfusion
reactions still occur in the United States. In 2004,
Sandler reported that fatal and nonfatal acute
hemolytic transfusion reactions occurred with
frequencies of 1 case per 250,000 to 600,000 population
and 1 case per 6,000 to 33,000 population, respectively.
1
Up to 20% of all incompatible transfusions can be
traced to patient misidentification and/or specimen
mislabeling errors before a specimen arrives in the
laboratory.
Wrong blood in tube (WBIT, see sidebar) incidents
can result in a patient ABO mistype, an incompatible