Managing the Anemia of prematurity: Red blood cell transfusions versus recombinant erythropoietin*

https://doi.org/10.1053/tmrv.2001.24592Get rights and content

Transfusion-dependent anemia remains a problem for preterm infants, particularly those with a birth weight less than 1.0 kg. Several studies have documented the efficacy and safety of transfusing red blood cells stored up to 42 days as a means to diminish donor exposures Recombinant erythropoietin therapy has not been widely adopted because it does not consistently reduce the need for red blood cell transfusion in very low-birth weight preterm infants.

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  • Cited by (25)

    • Anaemia of prematurity: Pathophysiology and treatment

      2010, Blood Reviews
      Citation Excerpt :

      On one hand, clonogenic erythroid progenitors from neonates respond well to r-HuEPO in vitro and r-HuEPO and iron effectively stimulate erythropoiesis in vivo as evidenced by increased blood reticulocyte and RBC counts in recipient infants (i.e., efficacy successful at the marrow level). On the other hand, when the primary goal of r-HuEPO therapy is to eliminate RBC transfusions, r-HuEPO often fails to do so (i.e., efficacy at the clinical level has not been consistently successful).20,35 By the end of 1999, over 20 controlled clinical trials assessing the efficacy of r-HuEPO to eliminate RBC transfusions in the anaemia of prematurity were published with inconsistent results.

    • Anemia of prematurity

      2004, Journal de Pediatrie et de Puericulture
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    *

    Supported by NIH grants PO1 HL46925 and RR00059.

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