WORLD JOURNAL OF ADVANCE
HEALTHCARE RESEARCH

*Dima Hasan, Adnan Dayoub, Ali Mohamed

ABSTRACT

Background: Neonatal respiratory distress is considered a frequent etiology of admission for neonatal intensive care in both preterm and term neonates globally and whether outcome is modulated by time to initiation of enteral feeding, which have been shown to increase time of hospitalization and worsen outcome in delay nutrition. Objective: The aim of this study was investigate the effect of enteral feeding time on prognosis of neonates with a respiratory distress. Materials and Methods: An analytical cross-sectional study was conducted for the period one year (2021-2022) at Tishreen University Hospital in Lattakia-Syria. The study included two groups of full term neonates with a diagnosis of respiratory distress were compared: group I consisted of 82 neonates (group I) who received feeding during the first 48 hours of birth, whereas group II consisted of 88 neonates (group II) who fed enterally after 48 hours of birth. Results: The population of 170 neonates was predominantly male (67.1%), with a mean gestational age of 37.49±0.6 weeks and a mean birth weight of 2788.70±321.8 g. Cesarean section represented the most frequent method of delivery (95.30%), and the etiology of respiratory distress was neonatal sepsis in 55.9%. There were no significant differences between two groups regarding demographic variables and features of respiratory distress (p>0.05). Neonatal sepsis was significantly more frequent in group II (75% versus 35.4%, p:0.0001), whereas transient tachypnea was observed more frequently in group I (62.2% versus 20.5%, p:0.0001). The duration of oxygen-based treatment, hospitalization, and transition of respiratory distress were significantly longer in group II compared to I (3.6±3.19 versus 1.2±0.7, p:0.001), (9.55±6.7 versus 4.53±3.2, p:0.0001) and (6.40±3.1 versus 2.65±1.41, p:0.0001) respectively. In addition to, feeding intolerance was observed more frequently in group II (9.1 versus 2.4%, p:0.04). Time of initiating feeding didn't affect the course of respiratory distress (p:0.3). Conclusion: The current study demonstrated presence of favorable associations of early initiation of feeding with duration of hospitalization, oxygen therapy, and resolution for distress without deterioration of respiratory status.

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