Where should paediatric surgery be performed?
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Child↗
Biomedical subjects
P Crowle
Publications and source records attributed to P Crowle.
Early diet in preterm babies and developmental status at 18 months.
424 preterm infants were randomly assigned a standard "term" formula or a nutrient-enriched "preterm" formula as sole diets (trial A) or as supplements to mother's own expressed milk (trial B) for a median of 4 weeks postnatally. 18 months post term, blind evaluation of 377 survivors showed that those previously fed preterm rather than term formula had major developmental advantages, more so in motor than mental function; the advantages, in both mental and motor scores, were especially striking in small-for-gestational-age infants and in males. For motor development index in trial A, this advantage was 15 points; in infants born small for gestation, it was 23 points (nearly 1.5 SD). Moderate developmental impairment (developmental index less than 85), notably motor impairment, was considerably more common in the group fed term formula. Infants fed preterm formula also had a small benefit in social maturity quotient. Thus, a short period of early dietary manipulation in preterm infants had major consequences for later development, which suggests that the first weeks may be critical for nutrition.
Age Factors↗
Maternal fatness and viability of preterm infants.
To investigate the effect of maternal fatness on the mortality of infants born preterm up to the corrected age of 18 months 795 mother-infant pairs were studied. Maternal fatness was defined by Quetelet's index (weight/(height] and all infants weighed less than 1850 g at birth. In 771 mother-infant pairs maternal age, complications of pregnancy, mode of delivery, parity, social class, and the baby's sex and gestation were analysed by a logistic regression model for associations with infant mortality (but deaths from severe congenital abnormalities and those occurring during the first 48 hours after birth were excluded). In a subgroup of 284 mother-infant pairs all infant deaths except those from severe congenital abnormalities were analysed in association with the infant's birth weight and gestation and the mother's height and weight; this second analysis included another 24 infants who had died within 48 hours after birth. In the first analysis mortality overall was 7% (55/771), rising from 4% (71/173) in thin mothers (Quetelet's index less than 20) to 15% (6/40) in mothers with grades II and III obesity (Quetelet's index greater than 30). After adjusting for major demographic and antenatal factors, including serious complications of pregnancy, maternal fatness was second in importance only to length of gestation in predicting death of infants born preterm. In the second analysis mortality overall was 15% (44/284), rising from 9% (5/53) in thin mothers to 47% (8/17) in mothers with grades II and III obesity. In both analyses the relative risk of death by 18 months post-term was nearly four times greater in infants born to obese mothers than in those born to thin mothers. In addition, maternal fatness was associated with reduced birth weight, whereas it is associated with macrosomia in term infants. These data differ fundamentally from those reported in full term babies of obese mothers. It is speculated that the altered metabolic milieu in obesity may reduce the ability of the fetus to adapt to extrauterine life if it is born preterm.
Adult↗
Factors associated with maternal choice to provide breast milk for low birthweight infants.
Factors associated with maternal choice to provide milk for premature infants were investigated in 925 mother/infant pairs in five hospitals. A well educated, married, primiparous mother aged 20 or over who delivered a baby boy by caesarean section was nearly 1000 times more likely to choose to express her milk than a mother who was poorly educated, single, multiparous, and aged under 20, delivering a female infant vaginally. Evidence from the five centres suggested that hospital staff have little influence on a mother's choice of feeding method. The major differences between the populations of babies whose mothers do or do not choose to provide milk, raise important issues concerning the interpretation of data from non-randomised clinical trials of feeding premature infants.
Birth Order↗
Early sodium intake and later blood pressure in preterm infants.
The relation between early salt intake and later hypertension is debated. As part of a larger feeding study, 347 preterm infants were randomly assigned to receive early diets differing grossly in sodium content. Feeding a high sodium preterm formula in the neonatal period did not influence arterial blood pressure at 18 months (corrected) age.
Blood Pressure↗
A form of metatropic dwarfism in two brothers.
Two brothers are described with identical features of short-limbed dwarfism, normal face, hands and feet, respiratory difficulties and mild scoliosis. It proved impossible to offer a definitive diagnosis, though radiological features as a whole bore similarities to those of metatropic dwarfism, with the most notable feature the narrowing of the ossified components of the vertebral bodies.
Dwarfism↗