Neonatal thrombocytopenia in the NICU of our series: etiology, predisposing factors, management and short-term outcome

Thrombocytopenia (NTP) is one of the most common neonatal hematological disorders. The causes of neonatal NTP are very various, leading to large differences in the clinical profile of the affected neonates. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the characteristics, clinical diagnoses and short-term outcomes of neonatal NTP in Bahrami Children's Hospital, Iran.

This descriptive retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted on all neonates admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of Bahrami Children's Hospital in 2017-2019. The infants diagnosed with neonatal NTP, defined as a platelet count of <150000 on at least 2 occasions, were retrospectively evaluated. Data on patients' NTP and short-term outcomes were reported. Incomplete medical records were excluded from the study.

Out of 2000 neonates, 210 patients were diagnosed with neonatal NTP with a prevalence of 10.5%. Totally, 60% and 71.4% of infants were premature and underweight, respectively. Moreover, 30 and 20.9% of infants had premature and severe NTP, respectively. The most common clinical diagnosis was sepsis (68.1%). The mean length of stay in NICU was 12.3±9.5 days. Additionally, 20.9% of infants had at least one episode of severe hemorrhage, received a platelet transfusion, and 10.4% of infants expired during their NICU stay.

The prevalence of neonatal NTP was 10.5%. Despite the relatively high prevalence of preterm birth, low-birth weight and sepsis, the majority of our neonates recovered. Prospective studies are recommended to investigate the role of each predisposing factor in the development and outcome of neonatal NTP.