Limitations
This study has several limitations. First, due to the small sample size of the investigated population, our findings may not be generalizable and need to be confirmed in larger series of patients. Second, we included in our analysis neonates who received transfusions with both A-RBC and CB-RBC units. Moreover, the NIRS sampling frequency was small compared with other studies. We partially mitigated these limitations by adopting long intervals of NIRS monitoring and a robust MMRM analysis. Finally, we cannot exclude the effects of other unmeasured confounders.