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Anemia in Very Low-Birth-Weight Infants
JAMA; 2016 Mar 1; Patel, Knezevic, Shenvi, et al
Among very low-birth-weight (VLBW) infants, severe anemia, but not red blood cell (RBC) transfusion, is associated with an increased risk of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), according to a study of 598 VLBW infants. Researchers found:
• 7.4% of infants developed NEC.
• 5.4% of infants died (all causes).
• 53% of infants received a total of 1,430 RBC transfusion exposures.
• Unadjusted cumulative incidence of NEC at week 8 among infants exposed to RBC transfusions was 9.9% vs 4.6% among those not exposed.
• In multivariable analysis, RBC transfusion in a given week was not significantly related to the rate of NEC (adjusted cause-specific HR=0.44).
• Based on evaluation of 4,565 longitudinal measurements of hemoglobin, the rate of NEC was significantly increased among VLBW infants with severe anemia in a given week vs those without severe anemia (adjusted cause-specific HR=5.99).
Citation: Patel RM, Knezevic A, Shenvi N, et al. Association of red blood cell transfusion, anemia, and necrotizing enterocolitis in very low-birth-weight infants. JAMA. 2016;315(9):889-897. doi:10.1001/jama.2016.1204.