Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Observational Study
. 2014 Jul;99(4):F303-8.
doi: 10.1136/archdischild-2013-304747. Epub 2014 Mar 19.

Fresh frozen plasma use in the NICU: a prospective, observational, multicentred study

Observational Study

Fresh frozen plasma use in the NICU: a prospective, observational, multicentred study

Mario Motta et al. Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed. 2014 Jul.

Abstract

Objectives: To examine the use of fresh frozen plasma (FFP) in Italian neonatal intensive care units (NICUs); specifically to quantify compliance with guideline recommendations and to evaluate the relationship between coagulation tests and subsequent bleeding episodes.

Design: Prospective, observational study.

Setting: Seventeen Italian NICUs.

Patients and methods: Over a period of 12 months, for all neonates that received FFP we recorded specific characteristics, pretransfusion and post-transfusion laboratory test of haemostasis, and details of all haemorrhagic events.

Results: Among 3506 NICU admissions, 290 (8.2%) received one or more FFP transfusions during their hospital stay. Of these, 37% received FFP because of active bleeding and 63% received FFP prophylactically with the intention of preventing haemorrhage. A total of 609 FFP transfusions were administered (mean 2.1/transfused patient-range 1-25). Using previously agreed upon criteria, we judged that 60% of the 609 FFP transfusions were not compliant with guideline recommendations. By logistic regression, abnormalities in the prothrombin time, activated partial thromboplastin time, fibrinogen and platelet count were not independently associated with bleeding episodes.

Conclusions: FFP transfusion is a relatively frequent intervention in the NICU. In the present analysis, we found a remarkably high proportion of FFP transfusions given to non-bleeding neonates for indications not compliant with guideline recommendations. Platelet counts and coagulation studies were poor predictors of clinical bleeding.

PubMed Disclaimer

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources