Dean A Fergusson, Paul Hébert, Debora L Hogan, Louise LeBel, Nicole Rouvinez-Bouali, John A Smyth, Koravangattu Sankaran, Alan Tinmouth, Morris A Blajchman, Lajos Kovacs, Christian Lachance, Shoo Lee, C Robin Walker, Brian Hutton, Robin Ducharme, Katelyn Balchin, Tim Ramsay, Jason C Ford, Ashok Kakadekar, Kuppuchipalayam Ramesh, Stan Shapiro
CONTEXT: Even though red blood cells (RBCs) are lifesaving in neonatal intensive care, transfusing older RBCs may result in higher rates of organ dysfunction, nosocomial infection, and length of hospital stay. OBJECTIVE: To determine if RBCs stored for 7 days or less compared with usual standards decreased rates of major nosocomial infection and organ dysfunction in neonatal intensive care unit patients requiring at least 1 RBC transfusion. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Double-blind, randomized controlled trial in 377 premature infants with birth weights less than 1250 g admitted to 6 Canadian tertiary neonatal intensive care units between May 2006 and June 2011...
October 10, 2012: JAMA