Purpose

The purpose of creating small volume aliquots is to limit donor exposures and potentially decrease donor related risks. Small transfusions are often given to increase the RBC mass or intravascular volume in newborns. Blood loss may be acute or chronic from iatrogenic sampling.

The transfustion service must provide appropriate components as needed by each infant, while at the same time avoiding waste. A stock of group O quad packs are kept in inventory that can be divided into smaller aliquots to meet the needs of infants requiring only a small amount of RBC's for volume replacement. A premature infant would require a fresher unit, while a full term infant could certainly use a unit more than 8 days old.

In addition, hospital blood banks and transfusion services must be aware that patients less than 4 months of age have small blood volumes and immature organ function (immune system), which necessitate special approaches to component therapy. This is especially important for very low birth weight (VLBW) infants (<1500 g) and extremely low birth weight (ELBW) infants (<1000 g).