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Short-Term Blood Transfusion Outcomes in Preterm Infants admitted to Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU): A Retrospective Analytical Study

Background: Red blood cell (RBC) transfusions in preterm infants have been associated with increased risk of short-term morbidities, as necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) and intracranial hemorrhage (ICH). Aim of work: To study the relationship between RBC transfusions and short-term morbidities in preterm infants. Patients and Methods: Retrospectively, the relationship between RBC transfusions, number of transfusions and short-term morbidities were investigated in the first week and month over two years from 1 st March 2018 to 29 th February, 2020. One hundred sixty-one preterm infants were included: 91 females and 70 males who were ≤ 32 weeks of gestation and 1500 grams. Results: First week transfusions significantly correlated with the incidence and severity of ROP and BPD (P-value 0.012 & 0.014 for ROP) and (Pvalue 0.001 for the incidence and severity of BPD) and only the incidence of NEC and ICH regardless of the number of transfusions (P-value <0.001 for both), except for the outcome, where number of transfusions was significant in addition (P-value 0.007) compared to a highly significant outcome in relation to first week transfusion (P-value <0.001). First month transfusions were considerably associated with the incidence and severity of ROP (P-value <0.001 for both) and only associated with the incidence of NEC, ICH, and BPD (P-value of <0.001 for all). First month number of transfusions significantly correlated with the incidence and severity of BPD (P-value 0.024 & and 0.006 respectively) and the outcome (P-value 0.004). Conclusion: RBCs transfusion should be limited to the extremely indicated preterm infants especially in the first month of life.