Anti-D Prophylaxis Reviewed in the Erea of Foetal RHD Genotyping

A few years ago, the prevention of anti-D immunization was currently based on systematic postnatal prophylaxis associated with targeted antenatal injection in high-risk situations of foeto-maternal haemorrhage. The failures of prevention are mainly due to the non-respect of established guidelines for RhIG prophylaxis, and to spontaneous undetected foetal-maternal haemorrhages without any obvious cause during the third trimester of pregnancy.
In order to reduce the rate of residual post-pregnancy anti-D immunization, several countries decided to associate the classical prophylaxis to a routine antenatal anti-D prophylaxis (RAADP) during the 28th or 29th week of gestation. Since about ten years, the foetal RHD genotyping in maternal plasma enables us to limit the antenatal prophylaxis only to those D- women carrying a D+ foetus.
This paper deals with: the advantages of an antenatal prevention in the light of non invasive foetal RHD genotyping, the rules rendering prevention protocols efficient whatever the algorithm applied, and the recommended immuno-haematology follow-up of women who have received RhIG.