Early treatment with recombinant erythropoietin beta (rhEPO) reduces anemia and the need for blood transfusions in extremely low birth weight (ELBW) infants, according to the results of a blinded, randomized study reported in the July issue of the Journal of Pediatrics.
“Our hypotheses were that rhEPO increases hematocrit and decreases the need for transfusion in infants with birth weights below 1000 g and that the early start of treatment (in the first week of life) is more effective than a late start (in the fourth week),” write Rolf F. Maier, MD, and colleagues from the fourth European Multicenter Erythropoietin Beta Trial, which was supported by F. Hoffmann-La Roche.
In this study, 219 ELBW infants were randomized on day three to one of three groups: the early rhEPO group, which received 750 IU/kg/week from the first week for nine weeks; the late rhEPO group, which received the same dose but started on the fourth week for six weeks; or the control group, which did not receive rhEPO. All infants also received enteral iron (3-9 mg/kg/day) from the first week.
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