Vol 2, No 1 (2011)
Review paper
Published online: 2011-03-24

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Erythropoietin — the alternative treatment of anemia in infants

Sydonia Gołąbiowska-Staroszczyk, Michał Matysiak, Anna Adamowicz-Salach, Katarzyna Albrecht-Stanisławska, Agata Sobocińska-Mirska
Hematologia 2011;2(1):71-82.

Abstract

Anemia is one of the most common hematological problems in infants. The first 3 months of life are the period of special susceptibility to anemia development, because it may occur on the basis of a physiological decrease in morphological parameters of blood. The risk group of anemia are premature infants and term infants with additional complaints which have a negative influence on hematological parameters, for instance presence of serological incompatibility, infection or bleeding at birth or just after birth. Reduced production of erythropoietin has a key role in determining the occurrence of anemia the decrease in blood morphology in the first 3 months of life. Up to the recent years the only available treatment for this type of anemia was supplementary transfusion of packed red blood cells. Since the 1990s recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEpo) has, in many cases, become an alternative treatment in such cases. The rich literature, created on the basis of researches carried out in many centres all over the world, confirms high effectiveness and safety of rHuEpo in the treatment of anemia in the first 3 months of life.
Hematologia 2011; 2, 1: 71–82

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Hematology in Clinical Practice