Abstract
Background Thrombocytopenia is the commonest haematological abnormality encountered in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The incidence in neonates varies greatly, depending on the population studied.
Objectives The aim of the present study was to study the prevalence of thrombocytopenia in the neonates admitted to the NICU.
Methods The study was carried out in 97 consecutive eligible neonates; we collected data from neonates admitted in Neonatal intensive care units (NICUs), Suez Canal university hospital in the period from April 2019 to October 2018
Platelets counts were done twice to avoid sample errors
Results The prevalence of thrombocytopenia in the study group was 38.14% (37/97). The prevalence of Mild- moderate thrombocytopenia was 21.64% (21/97) cases and the prevalence of severe thrombocytopenia group was 16.49% (16/97). Factors associated with thrombocytopenia were sepsis (75.67%), pre-clampsia (8.1%) in mothers. The most common bleeding manifestation was Interventricular haemorraghe (16.2%). The overall mortality in babies with thrombocytopenia was 14.43%, 10 neonates (27.02%) with severe thrombocytopenia needed more than one time transfusion while 2 patients (5.40%) only with mild thrombocytopenia needed platelet transfusion
Conclusions It is concluded that thrombocytopenia is very common in the NICU and should be actively looked for so that it can be managed appropriately.