Tag Archives: transfusion

Do blood transfusions treat apnoea of prematurity?

Posted on 3 November 2025 by Keith Barrington

There has for a long time been a thought that anemic babies with many apnoeas could benefit from a blood transfusion which would decrease their apnoeic spells. This idea has never been directly tested by an RCT. That is, a … Continue reading →

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Should we be giving erythropoietin, or analogues, to preterm infants?

Posted on 14 May 2025 by Keith Barrington

In some pre-clinical models, erythropoietin acts as a neuroprotective agent, which led to the performance of clinical trials to determine whether there was a positive impact on outcomes of the preterm. The latest study has just been published, and it … Continue reading →

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Neonatal Research Shorts : April 2025

Posted on 7 April 2025 by Keith Barrington

I used to do a series of shorter posts called “weekly updates” but I ran out of steam and have concentrated on longer posts in recent years. The last couple of weeks, with clinical service, I have had less time … Continue reading →

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A lower limit for restrictive transfusion strategies? Not directly neonatology…

Posted on 9 February 2025 by Keith Barrington

Several trials of liberal versus more restrictive transfusion practices have been published, and overall, it seems that being very restrictive in transfusions has no negative impacts on clinical outcomes, and depending on the trial, some positive benefits of avoiding transfusion. … Continue reading →

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When should we transfuse preterm babies, and why? Redux.

Posted on 5 January 2021 by Keith Barrington

The TOP trial has just been published in the FPNEJM (Kirpalani H, et al. Higher or Lower Hemoglobin Transfusion Thresholds for Preterm Infants. N Engl J Med. 2020;383(27):2639-51). It was a multicenter, non-masked RCT among 1800 babies of less than … Continue reading →

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When should we transfuse preterm babies, and why?

Posted on 13 August 2020 by Keith Barrington

I was one of the investigators in the PINT trial (Kirpalani H, et al. The 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 … Continue reading →

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Do transfusions trigger NEC? or does anemia?

Posted on 16 April 2019 by Keith Barrington

I am still unconvinced that transfusion associated NEC is a real thing, I think it is possibly a real phenomenon, but I am not sure how to know for sure. Some of the best evidence I think comes from the … Continue reading →

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Platelet transfusions don’t close the PDA, but they may increase IVH

Posted on 13 April 2019 by Keith Barrington

I would never have actually thought to ask the question whether platelet transfusion might close the PDA, although early thrombocytopenia is associated with persistent PDA, and platelet plugs seem to be part of the mechanism of closure. A group in … Continue reading →

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At last, something men are better at than women!

Posted on 28 May 2018 by Keith Barrington

That is, giving blood for babies, at least maybe. The introduction to this new publication notes something that I was not aware of, that plasma donated by women is associated with a substantially greater frequency of transfusion related complications than … Continue reading →

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The last word on delayed cord clamping in the preterm? part 3.

Posted on 10 November 2017 by Keith Barrington

Lo and behold. Fogarty M, et al. Delayed Versus Early Umbilical Cord Clamping for Preterm Infants: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2017. Some of the authors of the APTS trial have performed an updated systematic review, … Continue reading →

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