Neonatal outcomes after transfusion of ABO non-identical blood (Neo-ABO)

Routine practice in many Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs) is to transfuse only group O red blood cells (RBCs). The McMaster Centre for Transfusion Research (MCTR) reported an increased risk of in-hospital mortality for adult group A patients transfused group O RBCs, raising the hypothesis that O blood may be harmful to some ABO group non-identical patients. We hypothesize that transfusing O blood to A, B and AB neonates is associated with higher rates of mortality and transfusion-associated necrotizing enterocolitis (TA-NEC) compared to group O neonates. The objectives are to: 1) create a neonatal transfusion database by linking data from 2 existing large databases: a transfusion database, and the Canadian Neonatal Network (CNN) database; 2) determine the rates of neonatal mortality and TA-NEC by the patient’s ABO blood type, and explore the association between these mortality and TA-NEC outcomes and ABO non-identical RBC transfusions. This retrospective cohort study will include very low birth weight (VLBW) neonates in the Level III NICU at McMaster Children’s Hospital (2002 to 2016). Study group: A, B and AB neonates transfused O RBCs. Control group: O neonates transfused O RBCs. Primary outcome: in-hospital mortality. Secondary outcome: TA-NEC rate.

SOLH, Ziad

McMaster University

Small Project Funding Program

Ontario

$14,989