Transfusion Service
.jpg "Rida Hasan, MD photo")
Rida Hasan, MD
Assistant Professor
University Of Washington Medical Center
Seattle, Washington, United States
Disclosure(s): No financial relationships to disclose
Nabiha Saifee, MD PhD
Assistant Professor, Transfusion Service Medical Director
Seattle Children's Hospital
Seattle, Washington, United States
Disclosure(s): No financial relationships to disclose
Ravi Patel, MD, MSc (he/him/his)
Professor of Pediatrics
Emory University and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta
Atlanta, Georgia, United States
Disclosure(s): No financial relationships to disclose
Session Desription: Transfusion and testing practices within the neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) vary significantly between institutions due to paucity of evidence-based literature. However, in the last decade, there have been a significant number of changes that affect the NICU population including major randomized controlled trials (RCTs) around limiting transfusion needs and threshold, changes in the neonatal hyperbilirubinemia guidelines and shifts in component availability. This session aims to present a comprehensive, relevant, multi-specialty overview of changes in neonatal transfusion practices for an audience of transfusion medicine physicians, trainees, managers and clinical laboratory scientists that have an active NICU.
The session will briefly cover the new hyperbilirubinemia guidelines and how it affects cord blood testing in the blood bank. Then, a neonatologist will share from personal experience his perspective of recent major RCTs that have impacted platelet and red cell transfusion practices in the NICU. RCTs to be discussed include Platelets for Neonatal Transfusion-Study 2 (PlaNeT-2), Preterm Erythropoietin Neuroprotection Trial (PENUT), Effects of Transfusion Thresholds on Neurocognitive Outcomes of Extremely Low-Birth-Weight Infants (ETTNO), and Transfusion of Prematures (TOP) trial. Finally, a medical director from a major pediatric center will discuss how changes in blood components availability with anticoagulant preservative solutions, increased platelet shortages, and pathogen reduction technology have impacted neonatal transfusion.