Nutritional support of the highhyphen;riskcomma; very low birth weightcomma; and premature infant

摘要

Recent developments in neonatal intensive care have pushed the bounds of survival for the very low birth weight infant to the point when survival of less mature infants will probably hinge on development of an artificial uterus. Attention must focus on morbidity due to nutritional deficiencies during this extremely vulnerable age when rapid differentiation of cells is occurring. This review focuses on recent advances in feeding methods and updates our understanding of how nutrients relate to pathologic entities, eg, total parenteral nutrition-mediated intestinal atrophy and cholestasis, necrotizing enterocolitis, lipid-mediated bilirubin toxicity, chronic lung disease, and intracranial hemorrhage. All of these entities may affect the quality of survival.