Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Treatments and drugs
By Mayo Clinic staffSometimes, treatment for thrombocytopenia isn't necessary, particularly in children. In these cases, the bone marrow may make up for the shortage of platelets by producing large numbers of new ones until the initiating cause subsides. Young platelets are especially active in clotting, so even though the total concentration of platelets is low, your child may not experience any bleeding problems and need no special treatment.
Mild thrombocytopenia in pregnant women usually improves soon after childbirth.
If your doctor can identify the cause of thrombocytopenia, then the approach is to treat the underlying condition or stop using the problem medication.
Treating thrombocytopenia may involve several options:
- Medications. For idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, treatment may include medications that block the antibodies that attack platelets, such as corticosteroids. Intravenous immunoglobulin may be used when rapid elevation of your platelet count is needed. If corticosteroids don't help, your doctor may recommend medications that suppress your immune system to reduce antibody formation, such as cyclophosphamide (Cytoxan) or azathioprine (Imuran).
- Surgery. Sometimes, removing the spleen (splenectomy) relieves signs and symptoms or helps improve chronic idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura that doesn't respond to corticosteroids.
-
Blood transfusions and plasma exchange. For severe bleeding, your doctor can replace lost blood with transfusions of packed red blood cells. Platelet concentrates are given to treat severe thrombocytopenia, particularly those related to cancer or chemotherapy.
Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura requires emergency treatment with plasma exchange therapy or therapeutic plasmapheresis. If you have hemolytic uremic syndrome, you may need kidney dialysis in addition to red blood cell and platelet transfusions.
