Motor Outcome In Preterm Infants With And Without Nosocomial Infection During NICU Admittance At Six And Twelve Months Corrected Age

Objective: Is early gross motor development altered in preterm infants who experienced late-onset sepsis?

Materials and methods: Prospective cohort study collecting preterm infants <32 weeks gestational age and/or <1500 grams admitted to the level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit with suspected late-onset sepsis (LOS).

Results: In 117 infants one or more episodes of suspicion of LOS were analysed. In 85 infants bacterial culture turned in positive. Twelve infants died during admission, one died after discharge. At six months corrected age Alberta Infant Motor Scale (AIMS) scores differed significant between groups with (n=62) or without (n=20) proven LOS (p=0.050) in favour of the LOS group. In the proven LOS group AIMS showed a significant declined at twelve months corrected age (p=0.004) compared to scores at six months corrected age. A trend in lower AIMS scores at six months corrected age was already found in a subgroup of infants with necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) with or without positive blood culture (p=0.059).

Discussion and conclusion: In this study preterm infants at twelve months corrected age follow up using AIMS revealed aberrant development after late-onset sepsis, indicating that the occurrence of late-onset sepsis contributes to an impaired development of gross motor functions. In patients with NEC a trend in gross motor developmental delay was observed at six months corrected age indicating to be more at risk for deterioration in development than LOS alone.

Author(s): Inge A Zonnenberg*, Frank A M van den Dungen, R Jeroen Vermeulen**, Veronique A M Schaaf3 and Mirjam M van Weissenbruch1

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