Many premature babies are born with too few blood platelets (cells which help the blood to clot), and are given blood platelet transfusions to prevent major bleeding. But it has been unclear how low a baby’s platelet counts need to be before a blood platelet transfusion should be given.
Now a study co-led by our researchers, which included babies at the John Radcliffe Hospital, has found that surprisingly, giving this transfusion when the babies platelets are lower actually works better: babies given the transfusion when their platelet counts fell below 25 were less likely to die or suffer from major bleeding, compared to those who were given the transfusion when their platelet count was higher, at 50.