A 20-cm cut umbilical cord milking may not benefit the preterm infants < 30 week's gestation: A randomized clinical trial

Background/Purpose: To evaluate whether a shorter length (20 cm) of C-UCM has potential benefits, compared to immediate cord clamping (ICC), in very preterm babies. Methods: Inborn preterm infants less than 30 weeks of gestational age (GA) were randomly assigned to the 20-cm C-UMC and ICC groups. The primary outcome was the need for packed red blood cell (pRBC) transfusion before the 21st day of life. The secondary outcomes were short and long-term outcomes related to premature birth. Results: Seventy-six neonates were randomized to the two groups. GA were 27.2 +/- 1.8 and 27.5 +/- 1.7 weeks (p = 0.389) and birth weights were 987 +/- 269 and 1023 +/- 313 g (p = 0.601) in the 20-cm C-UCM and ICC groups, respectively. There was no significant difference between the groups in terms of the need for pRBC transfusion before the 21st day of life (59.4% versus 71.8%, adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 0.311, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.090-1.079). An increased prevalence of late-onset sepsis was observed in the 20-cm C-UCM group compared to the ICC group (21.6% versus 5.1%, aOR 5.434, 95% CI 1.033-23.580). The mortality rates were 13.5% and 2.6% in the 20-cm C-UCM and ICC groups, respectively (aOR 5.339, 95% CI 0.563-50.626). The neurodevelopmental outcomes at 2 years of corrected age between the groups were also not statistically significant.Conclusion: A 20-cm C-UCM showed no effect on reducing the incidence of pRBC transfusion in pre term babies with GA less than 30 weeks compared with ICC in this small-scale randomized controlled trial. Copyright 2021, Formosan Medical Association. Published by Elsevier Taiwan LLC. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/ 4.0/).