Assessment of haemostatic function in paediatric surgical patients: ‘if you prick us, do we not bleed?’

Healthy babies have ∼50% of adult procoagulant factor levels, but without an increased risk of bruising or bleeding. The preoperative clotting tests, prothrombin time and partial thromboplastin time, are frequently performed in infants and children. However, the clinical usefulness of screening coagulation tests remains controversial. Viscoelastic coagulation tests are increasingly used to guide perioperative haemostatic interventions. Enhanced coagulability was previously demonstrated on some viscoelastic testing devices using blood from younger infants. This editorial focuses on several key findings from the paediatric reference range study using a new whole blood viscoelastic coagulation test system, ClotPro® (Haemonetics, Boston, MA, USA). Altered clotting patterns in younger infants, underlying mechanisms of coagulation, and potential clinical implications are discussed.