Usefulness of cord-blood harvesting for autologous transfusion in surgical newborns with antenatal diagnosis of congenital anomalies.

In connection with this study, one may wonder how often, in those children needing blood transfusions, the volume of cord blood collected will be sufficient to avoid allogeneic transfusions. Besides, the risk of bacteria contamination is clearly higher than the risk associated with allogeneic blood, particularly under routine conditions.

– V. Kretschmer.