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Background With the increasing survival of preterm infants, their nutrition becomes an enormous challenge. Adequate nutrition plays an important role in good neurodevelopmental outcomes. Extrauterine growth retardation (EUGR) is defined as discharge weight below 10th percentile of the weight expected for that gestation after plotting on postnatal growth charts. Aims and Objective This study was conducted to assess the incidence of EUGR in preterm babies and its associated risk factors. Material and Methods This was a retrospective medical chart review of neonates admitted from January 2017 to November 2021 to a level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Delhi, India. Eligible neonates were all preterm babies born at <35 completed weeks’ gestation admitted in NICU within 24 hours of birth and survived for at least 7 days. Neonates who died during hospitalization or were born with a major congenital anomaly requiring surgery in immediate neonatal period or with any genetic syndrome were excluded. Results A total of 250 babies were enrolled in the study, out of which 45.2% neonates were EUGR. Factors significantly associated with EUGR status were long duration of hospital stay, lower birth weight, small for gestational age (SGA) at birth, male sex, persistent ductus arteriosus, sepsis, broncho-pulmonary dysplasia, use of total parenteral nutrition, long duration of mechanical ventilation, longer time to reach full feeds, and interruption of feeds. SGA was associated with highest odds of developing EUGR OR-80.45 (16.96-1441.09), P <0.001 followed by use of TPN [OR-2.86 (1.61-5.08), p <0.001. Risk of EUGR increased manifold as the number of risk factors increased. Future plans Strategies for prevention of EUGR should focus on prevention of various neonatal morbidities and risk factor reduction during the hospital stay.
Kukreja et al. (Tue,) studied this question.