Improved weight attainment of extremely low-gestational-age infants with bronchopulmonary dysplasia.

OBJECTIVE

To determine whether changes in neonatal practice and morbidity since 2000 have improved the growth attainment of infants with bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD).

STUDY DESIGN

We compared the respective z-scores of the weight, length and head circumference of extremely low-gestational-age infants (aged <28 weeks) with BPD at birth, 40 weeks and 20 months corrected age (CA) during two time periods, namely period I, 1996-1999 (n=117) and period II, 2000-2003 (n=105), and examined the effects of significant changes in neonatal practice, morbidities and neurosensory outcome on 20-month growth outcomes.

RESULT

During the most recent period (2000-2003), there was a significant increase in mean weight z-scores (-1.60 vs -1.22) and decrease in rates of subnormal weight (40 vs 21%), P<0.05 at 20 months CA but not in those of length or head circumference. Significant predictors of the 20-month weight z-score included time period (period I vs II), duration of ventilator dependence and 20-month neurosensory abnormality (all P<0.05).

CONCLUSION

Despite an improvement in weight since 2000, poor growth attainment remains a major problem among infants with BPD.