Outcomes of extremely preterm infants with neonatal hyperglycemia and hypernatremia: a retrospective cohort study

Abstract Objective To assess whether early hypernatremia (HN) and/or hyperglycemia (HG) in the first postnatal week are associated with adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes in extremely preterm (EP; 145 mmol/L and HG as blood glucose > 10 mmol/L within days 0–7. Infants were classified into HN, HG, or combined HN + HG groups; EP infants without HN/HG served as controls. This study included 748 EP infants: 374 with HN and/or HG and 374 controls. The primary outcome was an adverse neurodevelopmental outcome at 2 years’ corrected age. Results On adjusted analyses, HN, HG and HN + HG were not associated with moderate-to-severe developmental impairment. Moderate-to-severe HN group showed a lower odds of moderate-to-severe developmental impairment than controls (18.3% vs 21.5%; adjusted OR 0.39, 95% CI 0.15–0.99; p = 0.047). Conclusions Early hypernatremia and/or hyperglycemia were not associated with adverse neurodevelopment at 2 years’ corrected age.