Prevention of meconium obstruction in very low birth weight preterm infants

Introduction: Delayed meconium expulsion is a cause of bowel obstruction in the extremely premature newborn (<28 WGE) weighing less than 1500g at birth. Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of conservative treatment in the prevention of meconium obstruction in very-low-birt- weight preterm infants. Method: Descriptive and retrospective study performed at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of a tertiary level hospital. All very-low-birth-weight preterm infants who were born during the study period, from August 2016 to January 2017, and who had meconium obstruction were included. Results: A sample of 42 newborn infants was obtained. Regarding the expulsion of meconium, 57.1% of the sample spontaneously ejected meconium, while 42.9% received different treatments. Of these, 72.2% were treated with saline enemas, 16% with acetylcysteine enemas, 16% with Gastrografin (R) and none required surgical treatment. Conclusion: Conservative treatment seems to be an effective therapeutic measure for the prevention of meconium obstruction in very-low-birth-weight preterm infants since it achieved the expulsion of meconium without having to apply surgical treatment. (C) 2018 Sociedad Espanola de Enfermeria Intensiva y Unidades Coronarias (SEEIUC). Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L.U. All rights reserved.