Bloodless treatment of infants with haemolytic disease

It was interesting to read an excellent review in the January 2004 edition of Archives devoted to the topic of blood transfusion.1 At the same time the issues of haemolytic disease in the newborn (HDN) and alternatives to exchange transfusion (ET), were treated as follows: “A recent systematic review has shown that fewer infants require exchange transfusion for haemolytic disease of the newborn when high dose intravenous immunoglobulin is used”.2 Neonatologists generally applaud the efforts made in an attempt to achieve a “bloodless” solution to the treatment of Rh and/or AB0 HDN in a newborn whose parents are Jehovah’s Witnesses. In 1999 we published a case …