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NEONATAL MORTALITY IN INFANTS RECEIVING AN EXCHANGE TRANSFUSION
Author(s) -
KITCHEN W. H.
Publication year - 1970
Publication title -
journal of paediatrics and child health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.631
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1440-1754
pISSN - 1034-4810
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-1754.1970.tb02856.x
Subject(s) - medicine , exchange transfusion , pediatrics , blood transfusion , intensive care medicine , surgery
SYNOPSIS Over an 18‐year period, 1,830 exchange transfusions were performed on 1,160 infants born at the Royal Women's Hospital, Melbourne with a total mortality of 9.8% for infants with Rhesus incompatibility contrasted with 3.3% in patients with other causes for hyperbilirubinaemia. The 6‐hour procedure mortalities were 3.5% and 0.6% respectively. Although deaths due to the technique of transfusion decreased over the review period, the overall mortality of infants with Rhesus incompatibility did not decline because premature induction of labour resulted in increasing numbers of very small infants. The mortality was highest when severe anaemia and respiratory distress co‐existed. The infant with hyperbilirubinaemia due to other causes tolerated exchange transfusion well, even if the birth weight was extremely low.