Diuretic therapy for extremely preterm infants does not alleviate respiratory problems

Monday, March 26, 2018

Diuretic therapy — commonly given to extremely preterm infants to help them overcome respiratory problems — appears to offer no benefit for this purpose, according to an analysis by researchers at the National Institutes of Health. Surprisingly, infants in the study who received diuretic therapy were more likely to require respiratory support, compared to extremely preterm infants with similar respiratory problems who did not receive the therapy. The study is published in The Journal of Pediatrics.

Diuretic medicines prompt the kidneys to make more urine. The therapy is commonly given to preterm infants to help drain fluid from the lungs, but there is little research evidence to support the practice.

Researchers at NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) analyzed data collected as part of the Prematurity and Respiratory Outcomes Program study, an effort to understand respiratory difficulties in extremely premature infants during the first year of life. The study included 835 infants born between 23 and 28 weeks at 13 U.S. neonatal intensive care units. An infant is considered full term at 39 weeks.