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Does enteral zinc supplementation improve growth and clinical outcome in preterm babies <37 weeks?
Author(s) -
Tee Pei Sen
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of paediatrics and child health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.631
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1440-1754
pISSN - 1034-4810
DOI - 10.1111/jpc.15215
Subject(s) - medicine , enteral administration , pediatrics , neonatal intensive care unit , parenteral nutrition , clinical trial , population , randomized controlled trial , intensive care medicine , environmental health
Aim To review the literature of the benefits of enteral zinc supplementation in preterm population <37 weeks to improve growth and clinical outcome. Methods PubMed database was searched for relevant articles. Studies not in English were excluded. Results A total of 2678 results were identified. Duplicates were removed and titles were screened. References were reviewed to find other papers. Studies which include term infants were not examined although studies involving low birthweight infants with a defined percentage of preterm participants were examined. Thirty‐four studies were subsequently reviewed, and nine studies were included as relevant to structured clinical question. Conclusion There are various levels of evidence suggesting benefits of enteral zinc supplementation in preterm babies. While the available trial findings are encouraging, there is currently limited evidence to address the effects of zinc supplementation in preterm infants in the setting of their typically long stay in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. A larger multi‐centre trial is required to establish optimal timing of initiation, dosage, duration and its effect on growth, development and acute morbidity and mortality.