Survival and complication rates in patients with thalassemia major in Taiwan.

Background: While transfusion and iron chelation therapy for thalassemia major (TM) has improved dramatically in recent years, the consequences of this improvement (current rates of survival and TM-related complications) remain unknown.

Methods: This nationwide population-based cohort study analyzed 2007-2011 data obtained from the Taiwanese National Health Insurance Research Database.

Results: After excluding those patients receiving hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, we enrolled 454 patients with TM who received transfusion and chelation therapy (median age, 17.