Symptomatic Hypocalcemia Precipitated by Small-Volume Blood Transfusion, ,

We present 2 cases in which the transfusion of small volumes of packed RBC was sufficient to precipitate symptomatic hypocalcemia. Subsequent inquiry revealed that both of the patients had preexisting, untreated, and asymptomatic hypocalcemia, 1 following partial thyroidectomy many years earlier and the other with documented hypocalcemia but without a definitive diagnosis.[Niven MJ, Zohar M, Shimoni Z, Glick J: Symptomatic hypocalcemia precipitated by small-volume blood transfusion. Ann Emerg Med October 1998;32:498-501.]