Hello Friends 🥳
We are back with another week of Neonatology Review podcasts. This week we are discussing Red Blood Cell Transfusions. When did we began transfusing babies? What are the recommendations when it comes to transfusions based on the latest evidence? And we will try answer some burning questions on the topic.
See below the papers we are reviewing this week.
We will be adding papers as we discuss them on the show this week and publish the presentation on friday as usual.
Access the presentation for this week here:
Here is the blog post by Dr. Keith Barrington that we discussed on the show and the table summarizing the hematocrit cutoffs of the various transfusion trials:
Current practice and guidelines for the transfusion of cellular blood components in the newborn - PubMed
Current practice and guidelines for the transfusion of cellular blood components in the newborn
R A Sacher
A Multicenter, Randomized, Controlled Clinical Trial of Transfusion Requirements in Critical Care | NEJM
Original Article from The New England Journal of Medicine — A Multicenter, Randomized, Controlled Clinical Trial of Transfusion Requirements in Critical Care
Randomized trial of liberal versus restrictive guidelines for red blood cell transfusion in preterm infants - PubMed
Although both transfusion programs were well tolerated, our finding of more frequent major adverse neurologic events in the restrictive RBC-transfusion group suggests that the practice of restrictive transfusions may be harmful to preterm infants.
Edward F BellThe Premature Infants in Need of Transfusion (PINT) study: a randomized, controlled trial of a restrictive (low) versus liberal (high) transfusion threshold for extremely low birth weight infants - PubMed
In extremely low birth weight infants, maintaining a higher hemoglobin level results in more infants receiving transfusions but confers little evidence of benefit.
Haresh KirpalaniNeurodevelopmental outcome of extremely low birth weight infants randomly assigned to restrictive or liberal hemoglobin thresholds for blood transfusion - PubMed
Maintaining the hemoglobin of extremely low birth weight infants at these restrictive rather than liberal transfusion thresholds did not result in a statistically significant difference in combined death or severe adverse neurodevelopmental outcome.
Robin K WhyteEffects of Liberal vs Restrictive Transfusion Thresholds on Outcomes in Extremely Low-Birth-Weight Infants
This randomized clinical trial assesses the effect of liberal vs restrictive red blood cell transfusion thresholds (based on postnatal age and current health state) on death or disability at 24 months of age among extremely low-birth-weight infants.
For Authors
Higher or Lower Hemoglobin Transfusion Thresholds for Preterm Infants | NEJM
Original Article from The New England Journal of Medicine — Higher or Lower Hemoglobin Transfusion Thresholds for Preterm Infants
Pathophysiology of Anemia During the Neonatal Period, Including Anemia of Prematurity - PubMed
This review summarizes the current thinking about the causes of anemia universally experienced by preterm infants in the early postnatal weeks. In addition to describing developmentally determined physiologic processes contributing to anemia of prematurity, this review discusses clinically important…
John A WidnessRBC Transfusion, Anemia, and NEC in Very Low-Birth-Weight Infants
This cohort study examines the association between red blood cell transfusion, severe neonatal anemia, and necrotizing enterocolitis among very low-birth-weight infants during the first 90 days of life.
For Authors