Abstract
Thrombocytopenia defined as platelet count below 150,000/μL is not an uncommon event at the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). In our region we calculated a prevalence of nearly 2 of 1000 live births. Early-onset neonatal thrombocytopenia (NT) occurring within the first 72 hours of life is more common than late-onset NT. Preterm infants are affected more often than term infants and bacterial infection is the most common diagnosis associated with NT. There are a lot of maternal, perinatal, and neonatal causes associated with NT and complications include bleedings with potentially life-threatening intracranial hemorrhage. Alloimmune thrombocytopenia (NAIT) often presents with severe thrombocytopenia (<30,000/μL) in otherwise healthy newborns and needs careful evaluation regarding HPA-1a antigen status and HLA typing. Platelet transfusions are needed in severe NT and threshold platelet counts might be at ≤25,000/μL irrespective of bleeding or not. Immune mediated NT recovers within 2 weeks with a good prognosis when there happened no intracranial hemorrhage. This short review gives an overview on etiology and causes of NT and recommendations regarding platelet transfusions.