Analysis of the association between necrotizing enterocolitis and transfusion of red blood cell in very low birth weight preterm infants

Bak, Seon-Yeong; Lee, Sihyoung; Park, Jae-Hong; Park, Kyu-Hee; Jeon, Ji-Hyun

Among the 180 VLBW preterm infants, 18 (10%) were included in the NEC group. GA, B.wt, Hgb and Hct were not different between the two groups at birth. But, the Apgar scores at 1 and at 5 minutes were significantly lower in the NEC group, and the incidence of RDS, DIC, hemorrhage and mortality were also significantly higher than those in control group. The incidence of IVH and PDA tended to be more frequent in the NEC group than that in the control group. But there were no significant statistical difference. A total of 3.1±2.9 transfusions were administered in the NEC group before the NEC diagnosis with 6.2±5.8 transfusions administered in the NEC group during the entire hospital course. This number of transfusions before NEC diagnosis was significantly larger than that in the control group (1.0±1.1 times) ( Table 1) . Table 2 shows the univariate logistic regression to verify generally known NEC risk factors, including Apgar score, PDA, RDS, DIC, and hemorrhage. PDA was not a significant factor and RDS had a nonsignificant confidence interval. The risk of NEC decreased significantly with higher 1 and 5 minutes Apgar scores (