Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis on Packed Red Blood Cell Transfusion and Neonatal NEC

A 2026 meta-analysis by Jinglan Huang synthesizes evidence from studies published before May 10, 2025. It includes five studies involving 971 neonates with necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). The pooled analysis found an odds ratio of 6.05 for clinical deterioration associated with packed red blood cell transfusion.

Use Cases

• Assessing the association between pRBC transfusion and NEC progression based on pooled observational evidence.
• Informing clinical guidelines for neonatal care by evaluating the potential risks of blood product administration.
• Identifying gaps in the evidence base for future large-scale, well-designed studies on NEC and transfusion.

Strengths

• Pooled analysis includes data from 971 neonates across five studies.
• Reports a specific odds ratio of 6.05 with a 95% confidence interval of 3.02–12.14.
• Follows a systematic review methodology with defined inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Limitations

• The overall quality of evidence is described as low due to the lack of randomized controlled trials.
• Only five eligible studies were included, which the authors note limits the robustness of the findings.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

figshare

Collection Method

Systematic review and meta-analysis of published case-control, cohort, and randomized controlled trials.

Time Range

Studies published before May 10, 2025.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-24 16:13:01; freshness should be verified.