Vitamin A supplementation prevents the bronchopulmonary dysplasia in premature infants: A systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: It is necessary to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of vitamin A supplementation on the bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) in premature infants. METHODS: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on the role of supplemental vitamin A in preterm infants were searched. The Medline et al databases were manually searched from inception to April 30, 2020. Related outcomes including incidence of BPD, retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH), sepsis and mortality were assessed with Review Manager 5.3 software, and Random-effect model was applied for all conditions. RESULTS: A total of 9 RCTs with 1409 patients were included. The analyzed results showed that the incidence of BPD in vitamin A group was significantly less than that of control group (OR = 0.67, 95%CI [0.52–0.88]). There was no significant difference in the incidence of ROP (OR = 0.65, 95%CI [0.29–1.48]), NEC (OR = 0.88, 95%CI [0.59–1.30]), IVH (OR = 0.90, 95%CI [0.65–1.25]), sepsis (OR = 0.84, 95%CI [0.64–1.09]) and mortality (OR = 0.98, 95%CI [0.72–1.34]) among two groups. CONCLUSION: Vitamin A supplementation is beneficial to the prophylaxis of BPD in premature infants, further studies on the administration approaches and dosages of vitamin A in premature infants are warranted.