A critical review of intrauterine fetal transfusion.

A critical review of 142 intrauterine fetal transfusions performed in 99 patients during 107 pregnancies raised doubts about the absolute benefit of the procedure. Two main problems emerged: the diagnostic criteria upon which decisions were based were inadequate and the fetal mortality associated with transfusion was high, especially when this was performed before 28 weeks. We measured amniotic fluid bilirubin concentration by a biochemical method but the results following intrauterine fetal transfusion were similar to those observed by others using spectrophotometric examination of amniotic fluid.