Archives of disease in childhood. Fetal and neonatal edition
-
Arch. Dis. Child. Fetal Neonatal Ed. · Jan 2002
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialA pilot randomised controlled trial of peripheral fractional oxygen extraction to guide blood transfusions in preterm infants.
Peripheral fractional oxygen extraction (FOE) may be a better indicator of the need for transfusion than the haemoglobin concentration (Hb) because it is a measure of the adequacy of oxygen delivery to meet demand. A randomised controlled trial of the use of peripheral FOE to guide the need for blood transfusions in preterm infants was carried out to test this hypothesis. ⋯ FOE measurements failed to identify many infants felt by clinicians to require blood transfusion. This may have been because clinicians relied on conventional indicators of transfusion that are vague and non-specific, or a peripheral FOE of 0.47 alone may not be a sensitive enough predictor of the need for transfusion. This requires further study.