Anemia, nutrition, and ambulatory oxygen weaning in a cohort of oxygen-dependent premature infants

Background: In Bogotá, Colombia, oxygen-dependent (OD) preterm infants are home discharged in Kangaroo Position, to a Kangaroo Mother Care Program (KMCP) with ambulatory oxygen, strict follow-up, and oxygen weaning protocols. Objectives: (1) To describe growth, morbimortality, and oxygen monitoring up to 6 months in OD preterm infants. (2) To explore associations between oxygen weaning, perinatal history, Hb levels, transfusions, feeding patterns, and growth. Methods: A prospective cohort study. Descriptive and multivariate analysis. Results: Recruited patients were 407 with 33 weeks median gestational age (GA). Mothers presented infections >28%, pre-eclampsia in 22%, and 80% received antenatal corticosteroids. Upon KMCP admission, median GA, chronological age, and hospital stay were 36 weeks, 21 and 17 days, respectively; 56.8% of patients had neonatal sepsis and 67.8% were admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit. At oxygen weaning, patients had a median of 54 days with oxygen, median weight 3240 g and GA 41 weeks. Median follow-up oxygen saturation was 94% with 1/64–1/2 L/min of oxygen. One-year mortality was 0.2% and attrition 20%. At 6 months, all patients had appropriate growth and 67% were breastfeeding. Multiple regression analysis showed that higher GA, Hb levels, weight gain, and exclusive breastfeeding decreased oxygen requirement while invasive ventilation and transfusions had the opposite effect (R² =.49). Conclusions: In OD preterm infants, there is a close relationship between days of oxygen requirement and GA, mechanical ventilation, Hb levels at discharge, transfusions, exclusive breastfeeding, and weight gain. Strict monitoring with established protocols in an ambulatory KMCP allows adequate growth and safe oxygen weaning.