Plasma from female donors is associated with an increased risk of transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI). In order to investigate the association between donor gender and risk of mortality for RBC transfusion recipients, researchers retrospectively examined data from three cohorts separately—34,662 patients (mean age, 69 years; 54% female) from the Kaiser Permanente Northern California (KPNC) database; 93,724 patients (mean age, 61 years; 52% female) from the Recipient Epidemiology and Donor Evaluation Study-III; and 918,996 patients (mean age, 72 years; 57% female) from the Scandinavian Donations and Transfusions (SCANDAT) database. Based on Cox regression models adjusted for the number of RBC units transfused, RBCs from female donors, previously pregnant donors, or sex-discordant donors (male donor and female recipient or vice versa) were not associated with increased in-hospital mortality. The hazard ratios ranged from 0.99 to 1.01 for all cohorts. The data are reassuring that donor sex or gender do not impact mortality in transfusion recipients.
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