Abstract
Objective Neonatal sepsis is associated with abnormal neurodevelopmental outcomes but not with poor growth at 9 to 15 months of corrected age in LBW infants. Design, Setting, and Participants This is a prospective cohort study involving 128 eligible preterm low-birth-weight (LBW) infants admitted during the period of 2013-2014 to the Durgabai Deshmukh Hospital and Research Center. All patients were followed up in the outpatient Department of Pediatrics. They were divided into the sepsis and nonsepsis group. Results A total of 94 infants were evaluated (40 in sepsis and 54 in nonsepsis group). At the age of 9–15 months, low-birth-weight infants with neonatal sepsis had an increased risk of neurodevelopmental disorders (67.5 versus 20.3%; RR: 3.31 (1.87–5.85)). There is no statistically significant difference in the growth outcomes. Conclusion Neonatal infections are associated with the abnormal neurodevelopmental outcomes in LBW infants but there was no significant difference at growth outcome at 9 to 15 months of corrected age between both groups.
Highlights
Low-birth-weight (LBW) infants are at risk for poor growth and neurodevelopment outcome
Our study showed that infants with the sepsis were significantly growth retarded at 9 to 15 months of corrected age (p 0.014) as compared to control group; in comparison with other studies there was no significant difference in OFC and length at 9 to 15 months as our study did not have power to pick up the difference
We found that there is a significant delay in neurodevelopment in sepsis group compared to nonsepsis group at 9 to 15 months of corrected age (p 0.001) and found that there is a gap between the high technology and quality of medical care and loss of or no neurodevelopmental care for high risk neonates and infants in NICUs by specialties and nursing of long-term neurodevelopmental outcome for high risk neonates
Summary
Low-birth-weight (LBW) infants are at risk for poor growth and neurodevelopment outcome. In India, few studies are done showing the outcome between the very-low-birthweight (VLBW) infants [1,2,3]. In India, about 33% of babies are born with low birth weight. Though a small percentage of these children develop cerebral palsy or mental retardation, long-term follow-up studies have shown mild problems in cognition, adjustment, and behaviour [4, 5] in early adolescence. In year 2010, 15 million infants were born preterm worldwide. 13 million were survived and 2.7% had moderate-to-severe neurodevelopment impairment [6]. Intrauterine infections are associated with cerebral white matter injury and subsequent neurodevelopmental impairment [7]. Septicemia was the commonest clinical category with an incidence of 23 per 1000 live births while the incidence of meningitis was reported to be 3 per 1000 live births
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