The use of cord blood for transfusion purposes: current status

Although the use of umbilical cord blood (UCB) for transfusion purposes has been proposed decades ago, the employ is still limited. In this article we review studies evaluating UCB collection efficiency and sterility, examine processing and storage of UCB-derived red blood cells (RBC) and discuss clinical studies in which UCB was used for transfusion purposes. Efforts to provide preterm newborns with autologous RBC derived from UCB have not been very successful. UCB collected after full-term deliveries can however easily be processed into RBC products and could be used autologous in case surgery of the neonate is indicated early after birth, or for allogeneic small volume paediatric transfusions. To harvest enough UCB volume, immediate clamping of the umbilical cord is commonly used as standard practice. Although delayed cord clamping has shown to improve the iron status in full-term infants; for small-for-gestational-age infants this has not been demonstrated. In addition, an increased need for phototherapy after delayed clamping exists. Altogether, we could find no disencouraging evidence to collect UCB, which could be processed into an easily available RBC product for paediatric transfusion in resource-restricted countries.