Hello,

I would like to know the place of recombinant erythropoietin in the management of anemia of extreme preterms (28 weekers).

When do we start , whether to wait for the response to iron or red cell transfusion? Do we have a well validated guideline?

Because most of the books are not categorical.

thanks

dr.r.selvan

Some nice articles on this topic:

Mainie P. Is there a role for erythropoietin in neonatal medicine? Early Hum

Dev. 2008 Aug;84(8):525-32. Epub 2008 Jul 23. Review. PubMed PMID: 18653293.

LINK

Aher S, Malwatkar K, Kadam S. Neonatal anemia. Semin Fetal Neonatal Med. 2008

Aug;13(4):239-47. Epub 2008 Apr 14. Review. PubMed PMID: 18411074.

LINK

Cochrane review(2008) of early rHuEPO administration (starting before the 8th day of life) found a reduction in the number of transfusions, the volume of packed red blood cells given, and the number of donors required, but reported a significant increase in the frequency of severe (stages III-V) retinopathy of prematurity