You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Original article
A novel approach to standardised recording of bleeding in a high risk neonatal population
  1. Vidheya Venkatesh1,
  2. Anna Curley1,
  3. Rizwan Khan1,
  4. Paul Clarke2,
  5. Timothy Watts3,
  6. Cassandra Josephson4,
  7. Priyadarsini Muthukumar2,
  8. Helen New5,
  9. Frances Seeney6,
  10. Scott Morris7,
  11. Simon Stanworth8
  1. 1NICU, NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridge University Hospitals, Cambridge, UK
  2. 2Neonatal Unit, NHS Foundation Trust, Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals, Norwich, UK
  3. 3Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, NHS Foundation Trust, Guys and St Thomas Hospital, London, UK
  4. 4Department of Haematology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, USA
  5. 5Department of Paediatrics, St Marys Hospital, London, UK
  6. 6Statistics and Clinical Audit, NHS Blood and Transplant, Bristol, UK
  7. 7Flinders Medical Centre, Adelaide, Australia
  8. 8Department of Haematology, National Health Service Blood and Transplant/Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals Trust, Headington, Oxford, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Vidheya Venkatesh, NICU, NHS Foundation Trust, Neonatal Unit, Rosie Maternity Hospital, Cambridge University Hospitals, Box 226, Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK; vidheya76{at}yahoo.co.in

Abstract

Background Bleeding assessment tools have been developed in other specialties to standardise the recording of bleeding for clinical haemostatic outcomes in transfusion trials, but such tools have not been developed for routine use in neonatology.

Aim The objective of this study was to develop, refine and evaluate a neonatal bleeding assessment tool (NeoBAT) to standardise the clinical recording of bleeding in premature and term neonates in an intensive care setting.

Methods This prospective neonatal international multicentre study included all episodes of bleeding in infants admitted to the intensive/high dependency care nursery over a 2–4-week period. The NeoBAT was developed to record neonatal bleeding episodes. We tested its reliability and reproducibility with duplicate assessments.

Results Duplicate assessments revealed 98% concordance. Bleeding occurred in 25% (37/146) of infants overall and was most common in preterm infants. 11% (16/146) infants had major/severe bleeds, 1% (2/146) moderate and 13% (19/146) minor bleeds.

Conclusions Bleeding is common in premature and term neonates admitted to intensive/high dependency care nurseries. This novel bleeding assessment tool facilitates prospective recording of bleeding events in neonatal intensive care settings and may allow standardised bleeding assessments in this high risk population.

https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2012-302443

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    View Full Text