Prevención de la obstrucción meconial en recién nacidos prematuros de muy bajo peso

Abstract

IntroductionDelayed meconium expulsion is a cause of bowel obstruction in the extremely premature newborn (<28 WGE) weighing less than 1500g at birth. ObjectiveTo evaluate the efficacy of conservative treatment in the prevention of meconium obstruction in very-low-birt- weight preterm infants. MethodDescriptive and retrospective study performed at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of a tertiary level hospital. All very-low-birth-weight preterm infants who were born during the study period, from August 2016 to January 2017, and who had meconium obstruction were included. ResultsA sample of 42 newborn infants was obtained. Regarding the expulsion of meconium, 57.1% of the sample spontaneously ejected meconium, while 42.9% received different treatments. Of these, 72.2% were treated with saline enemas, 16% with acetylcysteine enemas, 16% with Gastrografin® and none required surgical treatment. ConclusionConservative treatment seems to be an effective therapeutic measure for the prevention of meconium obstruction in very-low-birth-weight preterm infants since it achieved the expulsion of meconium without having to apply surgical treatment.