Impact of introducing a standardized nutrition protocol on very premature infants' growth and morbidity.

BACKGROUND:Inappropriate nutritional intake in premature infants may be responsible for postnatal growth restriction (PGR) and adverse long-term outcomes. OBJECTIVE:We evaluated the impact of an updated nutrition protocol on very premature infants' longitudinal growth and morbidity, and secondly the compliance to this new protocol. DESIGN:All infants born between 26-32 weeks gestation (GA) were studied retrospectively during two 6-month periods before (group 1) and after (group 2) the introduction of an optimized nutrition protocol, in a longitudinal comparative analysis. RESULTS:158 infants were included; 72 before and 86 after the introduction of the protocol (Group 1: (mean±SD) birthweight (BW) 1154±276 g, GA 29.0±1.4 weeks; Group 2: BW 1215±332 g, GA 28.9±1.7 weeks). We observed growth improvement in Group 2 more pronounced in males (weight z-score) at D42 (-1.688±0.758 vs. -1.370±0.762, p = 0.045), D49 (-1.696±0.776 vs. -1.370±0.718, p = 0.051), D56 (-1.748±0.855 vs. -1.392±0.737, p = 0.072), D63 (-1.885±0.832 vs. -1.336±0.779 p = 0.016), and D70 (-2.001±0.747 vs. -1.228±0.765 p = 0.004). There was no difference in females or in morbidities between the groups. We observed low compliance to the protocol in both groups: similar energy intake but higher lipid intake in Group 1 and higher protein intake in Group 2. CONCLUSION:The quality of nutritional care with a strictly-defined protocol may significantly improve weight gain for very preterm infants. As compliance remained low, an educational reinforcement is needed to prevent PGR. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION:This retrospective study was registered by ClinicalTrials.gov under number NCT03217045, and by the CNIL (Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés) under study number R2015-1 for the Maternity of the CHRU of Nancy