%0 Journal Article
%T Uso precoz de la eritropoyetina en la prevenci¨®n de la anemia del prematuro Early erythropoietin use for the prevention of anemia in very low birth weight newborns
%A Antonio Salvad¨® G
%A Pamela Ramolfo B
%A Marisol Escobar M
%A Alejandra N¨²£¿ez C
%J Revista m¨¦dica de Chile
%D 2000
%I Sociedad M¨¦dica de Santiago
%X Background: Anemia is common among very low birth weight newborns and requires frequent blood tranfusions. Erythropoietin was been reported to be useful in the prevention of this anemia. Aim: To asses the benefits of early (before the third week of life) Human recombinant Erythropoietin (r-EPO) administration to reduce the requirement of blood tranfusions in very low birth weight newborns. Patients and methods: sixty newborns under 1500g of birthweight were randomly assigned to recive r-EPO (n=29) or placebo (n=31) three times per week, during four weeks. Packed red cell volume and reticulocyte counts were measured weekly. Serum erythropoietin was measured prior to eigth dose. Transfusion requirements were recorded. Results: r-EPO reduced transfusions from 1.41 ¡À 1.1 to 0.69 ¡À 1 transfusions/newborns (p<0.001). At the fourth week of treatment, reticulocyte count was 14.8 ¡À 7 and 6.4 ¡À 4.9% in the active treatment group and placebo group respectively (p<0.001). Conclusions: r-EPO reduces the requrement of transfusions in low birth weight infants (Rev M¨¦d Chile 2000; 128: 1313-17).
%K Anemia neonatal
%K Erythropoietin
%K Infant
%K low birth weight
%U http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0034-98872000001200002