Contrary to what just said, Bain and Blackburn (2004) also state in another study the use of r-EPO does not appear to have a significant effect on reducing the numbers of early transfusions in most infants, but may be useful to reduce numbers of late transfusion in extremely low-birth-weight infants. A British task force to establish transfusion guidelines for neonates and young children and to help try to explain this confusion recently concluded that “the optimal dose, timing, and nutritional support required during EPO treatment has yet to be defined and currently the routine use of EPO in this patient population is not recommended as similar reduction in blood use can probably be achieved with appropriate transfusion protocols.”

Transfusion management
Other strategies involve the reduction of blood loss during phlebotomy.For extremely low birth weight infants, laboratory blood testing using bedside devices offers a unique opportunity to reduce blood transfusions. This practice has been referred to as point-of-care testing or POC. Use of POC tests to measure the most commonly ordered blood tests could significantly decrease phlebotomy loss and lead to a reduction in the need for blood transfusions among critically ill premature neonates as these tests frequently require much less volume of blood to be collected from the patient. A study was done by Madan and colleagues to test this theory by conducting a retrospective chart review on all inborn infants <1000g admitted to the NICU that survived for 2 weeks of age during two separate 1 year time periods.
Angiofibroma (AGF) is a descriptive term for a wide range of benign skin or mucous membrane (i.e. the outer membrane lining body cavities such as the mouth and nose) lesions in which individuals have: 1) benign papules, i.e. pinhead-sized elevations that lack visible evidence of containing fluid; 2) nodules, i.e. small firm lumps usually >0.1 cm in diameter; and/or 3) tumors, i.e. masses often regarded as ~0.8 cm or larger. AGF  lesions share common macroscopic (i.e. gross) and microscopic appearances. Grossly, AGF lesions consist of multiple papules, one or more skin-colored to erythematous, dome-shaped nodules, or usually just a single tumor. Microscopically, they consist of spindle-shaped and stellate-shaped cells centered around dilated and thin-walled blood vessels in a background of coarse bundles of collagen (i.e. the main fibrous component of connective tissue). Angiofibromas have been divided into different types  but commonly a specific type was given multiple and very different names in different studies. The following list gives a brief description of the AFG types and their alternate names. Cutaneous angiofibroma: These papule, nodule, and/or tumor lesions occur on the: 1) face and are typically termed fibrous papules; 2) penis and are typically termed pearly penile papules; and 3) underneath a fingernail or toenail and are typically termed periungual angiofibromas. Some of these cutaneous AGF lesions occur in individuals with one or more of 3 different genetic diseases: tuberous sclerosis, multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1, and Birt-Hogg-Dube syndrome. The following are examples of these cutaneous angiofibromas and their alternate names.