May 25, 2018
Two thirds of children in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) who receive transfusions of platelets—a component of the blood that helps it to clot—do so to prevent bleeding, according to a new study from Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian investigators. The other third of patients receive the transfusions to stop active bleeding.
Some children who receive platelet transfusions for preventive, or prophylactic, purposes may not need them, said the study’s lead author Dr. Marianne Nellis, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine and a pediatric intensivist at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center.