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Evidence summaries

Routine Antenatal Anti-D Prophylaxis for Rhesus Negative Women

Routine anti-D prophylaxis reduces the risk of antenatal sensitisation by approximately 80%. Level of evidence: "A"

A systematic review 1 including 9 studies (2 RCTs, 6 non-randomised CTs and 1 population-based before-and-after study) with a total of 17,398 subjects was abstracted in DARE. The OR for sensitisation with antenatal prophylaxis was 0.26 (95% CI 0.09 to 0.75) for the group that used a dosage regime of 500 IU at 28 and 34 weeks with primigravidae. The second pooling used a dosage regime of 1500 IU at 28 weeks and included both primigravidae and multigravidae participants had an OR of 0.15 (95% CI 0.09 to 0.23). The third group included all trials except those with very low doses had an OR of 0.16 (95% CI 0.11 to 0.23).

    References

    • Allaby M, Forman K, Touch S, Chilcott J. The use of routine antenatal anti-D prophylaxis for rhesus negative women. Sheffield: University of Sheffield. Trent Institute for Health Services Research. Guidance Notes for P. 1999. 1-45. [DARE]

Primary/Secondary Keywords