Trends of Treatments for Pediatric Patients with Immune Thrombocytopenia in Japan.

Summary: Imagine your blood has trouble clotting because it lacks tiny helpers called platelets. This condition is called ITP. Doctors in Japan looked at a massive database to see how they have been treating children with ITP in hospitals over the last 10 years.

They found that doctors are doing a lot less "wait and see" and are giving more active treatments instead. They are using more IV medicines (like IVIG) and newer drugs to help the blood clot. Old standbys like steroids are still used about the same amount. Amazingly, surgeries to remove the spleen have completely stopped! They also noticed that where a child gets treated—like a big teaching hospital versus a regular hospital—changes what medicine they get.