Anemia of prematurity : time for a change in transfusion management?

In this thesis we investigated clinical effects of allogeneic red blood cell (RBC) transfusions in premature infants, different transfusion volumes in relation to neonatal outcome in premature infants and the use of autologous cord blood (CB) as an alternative for allogeneic transfusions. Despite the use of a national transfusion guideline, we observed significant differences concerning the total amount of administered transfusions. A liberal transfusion strategy and a higher transfusion volume was not associated with poor short-term outcome, nor delayed neuro-motor development at the age of 2 years. CB-RBC products had a shelf-life of 14-21 days. We showed in a clinical trial that premature infants born