Critical Monitoring Time for Blood Transfusion Reactions

A nurse is administering a blood transfusion of packed red blood cells (PRBCs) to a patient diagnosed with chronic anemia. Prior to starting the transfusion, the nurse needs to ensure that the patient has been screened for any previous transfusion reactions and that they have been typed and cross-matched with the blood product.

After the transfusion, to monitor for any transfusion-related complications, the nurse should know that the vital signs need to be taken immediately before, during, and at critical time intervals thereafter. The nurse recalls that the most common time frame for acute hemolytic transfusion reactions to occur is within the first _____ minutes of starting the transfusion.