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.