Neutral and acidic oligosaccharides in preterm infants: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.
December 26th, 2009 Posted by: admin
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Neutral and acidic oligosaccharides in preterm infants: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.
Am J Clin Nutr. 2009 Dec 23;
Authors: Westerbeek EA, van den Berg JP, Lafeber HN, Fetter WP, Boehm G, Twisk JW, van Elburg RM
BACKGROUND: Serious infectious morbidity is high in preterm infants. Enteral supplementation of prebiotics may reduce the incidence of serious infections, especially infections related to the gastrointestinal tract. OBJECTIVE: The objective was to determine the effect of enteral supplementation of a prebiotic mixture consisting of neutral oligosaccharides ((SC)GOS/(LC)FOS) and acidic oligosaccharides (AOS) on serious infectious morbidity in preterm infants. DESIGN: In a randomized controlled trial, preterm infants (gestational age <32 wk and/or birth weight <1500 g) received enteral supplementation of 80% (SC)GOS/(LC)FOS and 20% AOS (1.5 g . kg(-1) . d(-1)) or placebo (maltodextrin) between days 3 and 30 of life. Serious infectious morbidity was defined as a culture positive for sepsis, meningitis, pyelonephritis, or pneumonia. The analysis was performed by intention-to-treat and per-protocol, defined as >/=50% supplementation dose during the study period. RESULTS: In total, 113 preterm infants were included. Baseline and nutritional characteristics were not different between groups. In the intention-to-treat analysis, the incidence of >/=1 serious infection, >/=1 serious endogenous infection, or >/=2 serious infectious episodes was not significantly different in the (SC)GOS/(LC)FOS/AOS-supplemented and placebo groups. In the per-protocol analysis, there was a trend toward a lower incidence of >/=1 serious endogenous infection and >/=2 serious infectious episodes in the (SC)GOS/(LC)FOS/AOS-supplemented group compared with the placebo group (P = 0.09 and P = 0.07, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Enteral supplementation of (SC)GOS/(LC)FOS/AOS does not significantly reduce the risk of serious infectious morbidity in preterm infants. However, there was a trend toward a lower incidence of serious infectious morbidity, especially for infections with endogenous bacteria. This finding suggests a possible beneficial effect that should be evaluated in a larger study. This trial was registered at isrctn.org as ISRCTN16211826.
PMID: 20032496 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
