BACKGROUND:

There are no international standards or normalizations for diagnosing and treating complications from blood transfusions. We comprehensively compared the incidence of adverse blood transfusions in children and adults.

METHODS:

Available literature on blood transfusion adverse reactions in children and adults prior to November 27, 2021 was collected from several electronic databases. This meta-analysis was performed using Revman 5.2 and Stata 15.1.

RESULTS:

The incidence of transfusion reactions is higher in children than in adults. Children transfused with red blood cells and platelets exhibited a higher incidence of transfusion reaction than that of adults. Moreover, the incidence of allergic and febrile non-hemolytic transfusion reactions was significantly higher in children than in adults. The incidence of some rare transfusion reactions was also significantly higher in children than in adults.

CONCLUSION:

The incidence of transfusion reactions in children and adults is varied. Guidelines for children are necessary.