It is commonly known that stored blood and blood products are heated before transfusion in order to prevent hypothermia, which leads to increased di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate content leaching into the blood and blood products and thereby causes greater conversion of di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate to mono (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate. However, there has been no study in the literature reporting on the amount of toxic phthalates in blood following the erythrocyte suspension transfused via warming. In

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... study, we aimed to investigate the di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate and mono (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate content in blood following the ES transfusions administered by di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate -containing and di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate -free infusion sets. The study included 30 patients that were randomly divided into 2 groups with 15 patients each: group I underwent erythrocyte suspension transfusion via di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate -containing infusion sets warmed with blood-fluid warmers and group II underwent erythrocyte suspension transfusion via di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate-free infusion sets warmed with blood-fluid warmers. Di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate and mono (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate levels were measured both before and after transfusion. Di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate-free infusion sets led to no increase in the phthalate content, whereas di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate-containing infusion sets significantly increased the di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate and mono (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate levels, where the di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate level increased almost four times (p=0.001). Di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate-containing products lead to toxicity. Therefore, using di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate-free products may prevent toxicity in patients undergoing erythrocyte suspension transfusion.