Neonatal Hematology

ad omnes qui curare aut cura de natum infans.*

We are presently into our fifth generation of pediatric hematologists here in the United States. As Dr. Howard Pearson notes in his historical review of the evolution of neonatal hematology (Chapter 1), the discipline of pediatric hematology began to differentiate itself from that of internal medicine in a codified way during the decade or two preceding World War II. Prior to that, discoveries related to hematologic diseases of the newborn were largely the domain of “adult” hematologists and a few hematopathologists who had developed special interest in the blood problems of the young. Throughout much of this early period, those starting their careers in pediatric hematology had little in the way of textbooks from which to learn, the first being that of Dr. Carl Smith and his Blood Disorders of Infancy and Childhood, initially published in 1960. As comprehensive as this text was, it did not have an extensive focus on the neonatal period. That focus came with the publication of Frank Oski’s and Lawrence Naiman’s Hematologic Problems of the Newborn in 1966 with updated editions in 1972 and 1982. To the third generation of pediatric hematologists, this writer included, Hematologic Problems of the Newborn, as abbreviated as it was (fewer than 400 pages), became the bible of those participating in the care of newborns with hematologic disorders. As this work’s dedication indicated, it was written “to all of those who care for or care about the newborn infant.”*