Abstract
The many red blood cell transfusions administered to preterm infants as treatment for anaemia are expensive and place them at potential risk from blood-borne infections and other transfusion-related complications. Because plasma erythropoietin concentrations in anaemic preterm infants are reduced relative to anaemic adults, inadequate erythropoietin production has been suggested as an important mechanism for the anaemia these neonates inevitably develop. Despite this justification for the use of recombinant erythropoietin in treating anaemia in preterm infants, erythropoietin therapy is being administered to preterm infants without a clear consensus regarding to which infants, under what conditions, and in what manner it should be applied. This review focuses both on the pathophysiology of anaemia in preterm infants as it relates to the rationale for using erythropoietin to stimulate erythropoiesis for the purpose of reducing red blood cell transfusions and on a critical assessment of the clinical studies employing this therapy.
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