ICD-10 T80.71 | ||
In transfusion medicine, transfusion associated circulatory overload (TACO) is a transfusion reaction (an adverse effect of blood transfusion) that occurs due to a rapid transfusion of a large volume of blood.
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Symptoms
The primary symptoms of TACO are dyspnea, orthopnea, peripheral edema, and rapid increase of blood pressure.
Occurrence
It is difficult to determine the incidence of TACO, but its incidence is estimated at about one in every 100 to 10,000 transfusions. The risk increases with patients over the age of 60 and patients with cardiac or pulmonary failure, or anemia.
Prevention
Transfusion associated circulatory overload is easily prevented by closely monitoring patients receiving transfusions and transfusing smaller volumes of blood at a slower rate.
Differentiation from TRALI
While both are related to transfusion medicine and both are important, TACO differs from transfusion related acute lung injury (TRALI) in part by having longer hospital stays and increased morbidity.
The hypotension seen with TRALI and the hypertension seen with TACO provides a clinical differentiation of the two.