Abstract
Critically ill premature infants often require lipid emulsions with parenteral nutrition until enteral feedings can be safely initiated. Because thrombocytopenia has been listed as a potential side effect of fat emulsions, we examined the effect of varying doses of intravenous fat infusions on platelet concentrations in premature infants. An initial validation study demonstrated no artifactual effect of fat infusions on the electronic cell counter method of platelet enumeration. We observed no adverse effect of fat emulsions administered at doses of 0.8 to 3.3 g/kg/day on platelet concentration either during short-term (48 hr) or long-term study periods (4 weeks).
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.