Scoping review of evidence for managing postnatal hypoglycaemia

To identify what is known empirically about the screening, treatment and harm of exposure to neonatal hypoglycaemia.

Scoping review that applied a preregistered protocol based on established frameworks.

Medline and Embase, up to 12 May 2020.

Comparative and case-series studies, as well as guidelines, published in English or French, on the topic of immediate inpatient postnatal glucose screening in newborns.

Article selection and characterisation were performed in duplicate using predefined data extraction forms specific to primary studies and guidelines.

12 guidelines and 74 primary studies were included. A neurodevelopmental outcome was primary in 32 studies: 30 observational studies followed up posthypoglycaemic, and the 2 intervention studies included 1 randomised controlled trial (RCT) about treatment thresholds. Three other RCTs assessed dextrose gel (two) and oral sucrose (one). 12 of 30 studies that evaluated non-neurodevelopmental primary outcomes were intervention studies. Only one cohort study compared outcomes in screened vs unscreened newborns. The guidelines did not arrive at a consensus definition of postnatal hypoglycaemic, and addressed potential harms of screening more often than primary studies.

The primary literature that informs hypoglycaemia screening is a series of studies that relate neurodevelopmental outcomes to postnatal hypoglycaemia. Further research is needed to better define an optimal threshold for hypoglycaemia that warrants intervention, based on long-term neurodevelopmental outcomes and a better delineation of potential screening harms.