A Controlled Trial of Intravenous Immune Globulin to Reduce Nosocomial Infections in Very-Low-Birth-Weight Infants

• Published in: The New England journal of medicine Vol. 330; no. 16; pp. 1107 - 1113
• Main Authors: Fanaroff, Avroy A, Korones, Sheldon B, Wright, Linda L, Wright, Elizabeth C, Poland, Ronald L, Bauer, Charles B, Tyson, Jon E, Philips, Joseph B, Edwards, William, Lucey, Jerold F, Catz, Charlotte S, Shankaran, Seetha, Oh, William
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston, MA Massachusetts Medical Society 21.04.1994
• Subjects: Bacilli; Biological and medical sciences; Birth weight; Body weight; Catheters; Childrens health; Cocci; Consent; Dysplasia; Enterocolitis; Gastrointestinal diseases; General and cellular metabolism. Vitamins; Globulins; Gram-negative bacilli; Gram-positive cocci; Hemorrhage; Hospitalization; Immunoglobulins; Infants; Intravenous administration; Laboratories; Low birth weight; Medical sciences; Meninges; Meningitis; Morbidity; Mortality; Necrosis; Necrotizing enterocolitis; Nosocomial infection; Nosocomial infections; Organisms; Pediatrics; Pharmacology. Drug treatments; Respiratory distress syndrome; Sepsis; Septicemia; Studies; Urinary tract; Urinary tract diseases; Urinary tract infections; Urogenital system; Human; Infection; Premature; Prevention; Chemotherapy; Immunoglobulins; Newborn; Treatment; Intravenous administration; Hypotrophy; Complication; Hospitalization
• ISSN: 0028-4793; 1533-4406
• DOI: 10.1056/NEJM199404213301602

Although survival rates for very-low-birth-weight infants ( ≤ 1.5 kg) continue to increase, 1 nosocomial infections remain a major cause of morbidity and mortality. Prolonged hospitalization with exposure to resistant organisms and multiple invasive procedures, in the presence of immunologic immaturity, 2 renders these infants vulnerable to hospital-acquired infections 3 . Profound hypogammaglobulinemia may result from low levels of IgG at birth (IgG is largely acquired transplacentally in the latter half of the third trimester), degradation of maternally acquired IgG, and delayed production of IgG after birth 4 . The use of pooled IgG has been suggested as a possible means of reducing this . . .