Episode Details
Back to Episodes#437 - 🔵 [PAS 2026] - Should We Be Transfusing Premature Babies With Cord Blood Instead of Adult Blood? (ft. Dr. Ravi Patel)
Description
Dr. Ravi Patel, neonatologist and leading voice in neonatal hematology and transfusion medicine, joins Ben and Daphna to discuss the launch of NeoHeat — the first dedicated neonatal hematology and transfusion medicine group at PAS. He explains why transfusion medicine in neonatology is still full of unanswered questions, from how we manage iron supplementation to whether we are truly following the latest transfusion threshold guidelines at the bedside. He also introduces one of the most exciting emerging concepts in the field: using cord blood from healthy term newborns to transfuse premature infants, replacing adult hemoglobin with fetal hemoglobin — an innovation already being adopted in some European centers that could have wide-ranging implications beyond anemia alone.
As always, feel free to send us questions, comments, or suggestions to our email: nicupodcast@gmail.com. You can also contact the show through Instagram or Twitter, @nicupodcast. Or contact Ben and Daphna directly via their Twitter profiles: @drnicu and @doctordaphnamd. The papers discussed in today's episode are listed and timestamped on the webpage linked below.
Enjoy!