Erythropoietin for apnoea of prematurity

[selvanr4]

Hello,
I would like to know the place of recombinant erythropoietin in the management of anemia of extreme preterms (28 weekers).
When do we start , whether to wait for the response to iron or red cell transfusion? Do we have a well validated guideline?
Because most of the books are not categorical.
thanks
dr.r.selvan

[JACK]

Some nice articles on this topic:

Mainie P. Is there a role for erythropoietin in neonatal medicine? Early Hum
Dev. 2008 Aug;84(8):525-32. Epub 2008 Jul 23. Review. PubMed PMID: 18653293.
LINK (http://www.earlyhumandevelopment.com/article/S0378-3782%2808%2900117-5/abstract)

Aher S, Malwatkar K, Kadam S. Neonatal anemia. Semin Fetal Neonatal Med. 2008
Aug;13(4):239-47. Epub 2008 Apr 14. Review. PubMed PMID: 18411074.
LINK (http://www.sfnmjournal.com/article/S1744-165X%2808%2900018-8/abstract)

[salameh101]

Cochrane review(2008) of early rHuEPO administration (starting before the 8th day of life) found a reduction in the number of transfusions, the volume of packed red blood cells given, and the number of donors required, but reported a significant increase in the frequency of severe (stages III-V) retinopathy of prematurity