The effect of maternal partial exchange transfusion on the infants of patients with sickle cell anemia.

The reproductive outcome of pregnancies complicated by severe sickle cell hemoglobinopathies is not usually satisfactory. In this study, prophylactic partial exchange transfusions have been used in 35 patients with sickle hemoglobinopathies. There was significant improvement in results, both maternal and neonatal, as compared to those in 29 pregnancies complicated by similar disease processes who did not receive this therapy. The former group was also compared to 61 normal pregnant patients and 31 patients with sickle cell trait, none of whom received blood as part of their therapy. The results were similar in the group receiving transfusions and in the group with sickle cell trait. There was a decrease in perinatal wastage, prematurity, and incidence of low-birth-weight infants in the transfusion group when compared to the patients with hemoglobinopathies who were treated conservatively.