ISSN: 2572-4983

Neonatal and Pediatric Medicine
Open Access

Our Group organises 3000+ Global Conferenceseries Events every year across USA, Europe & Asia with support from 1000 more scientific Societies and Publishes 700+ Open Access Journals which contains over 50000 eminent personalities, reputed scientists as editorial board members.

Open Access Journals gaining more Readers and Citations
700 Journals and 15,000,000 Readers Each Journal is getting 25,000+ Readers

This Readership is 10 times more when compared to other Subscription Journals (Source: Google Analytics)
  • Research Article   
  • Neonat pediatr Med,
  • DOI: 10.4172/2572-4983.1000001

Pitfalls in the Nutritional Management of Very Low Birth Weight Infants: Lessons to be learned from Detailed Chart Analyses

Iris Alexa Howaldt1, Stephan Seeliger2 and Helmut Küster1*
1Clinic for Paediatric Cardiology, Intensive Care and Neonatology, University Medical Centre, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Germany
2Clinic for Paediatrics, St. Elisabeth Hospital, Neuburg an der Donau, Germany
*Corresponding Author : Helmut Küster, Clinic for Paediatric Cardiology, Intensive Care and Neonatology, University Medical Centre, Georg-August-Universität Göttinge, Germany, Email: helmut.kuester@med.uni-goettingen.de

Received Date: Aug 25, 2021 / Accepted Date: Sep 08, 2021 / Published Date: Sep 15, 2021

Abstract

Background: Normal long-term neurodevelopmental outcome of very low birth weight infants requires adequate nutrition. The latter depends on a precise nutritional protocol and regular checks of adherence to its content. The scope of this study was to reveal factors with potential negative influence on adequate nutritional support of very low birth weight infants in a level IV neonatal intensive care unit.

Methods: A detailed chart analysis investigated the adherence to the local protocol for enteral and parenteral nutrition and the resulting growth of very low birth weight infants stratified by predefined criteria in four 250 g strata.

Results: The median [IQR] birth weight was 1065 (439) g, gestational age was 29.1 (3.4) weeks. Weight gain was 14.8 g/kg/d, which was equivalent to the lower range of intrauterine growth. Hence, z-score of 0.59 at birth dropped to -1.39 at discharge. Chart analysis revealed six reasons for inadequate growth: 1) Delayed postnatal start of parenteral protein and fat supplementation on day two; 2) Slower than intended advancement of oral feeds by in median 7.8 instead of the proposed 20 mL/kg/d; 3) Failure of using the most current body weight for calculation; 4) Inadequate total protein intake: 7.3 g/kg/d cumulative protein deficit already on day 8, the intended 4 g/kg/d of protein were not reached on 59% of all hospital days; 5) Reduction of milk supplementation ahead of schedule; 6) Interruption of parenteral nutrition during infusion of antibiotics.

Conclusion: To achieve optimal quality of care regular reviews of adherence to internal guidelines are essential. Certain errors in management may only be detected by regular independent detailed analysis of charts and daily practice.

Keywords: Nutrition; Very low birth weight infant; Newborn; Neonatal intensive care; Health and safety; Quality of health care

Citation: Howaldt IA, Seeliger S, Küster H (2021) Pitfalls in the Nutritional Management of Very Low Birth Weight Infants: Lessons to be learned from Detailed Chart Analyses. Neonat Pediatr Med S9: 001. Doi: 10.4172/2572-4983.1000001

Copyright: © 2021 Howaldt IA, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Post Your Comment Citation
Share This Article
Recommended Conferences
Article Usage
  • Total views: 2035
  • [From(publication date): 0-2021 - Nov 23, 2024]
  • Breakdown by view type
  • HTML page views: 1593
  • PDF downloads: 442
Top