[Growth of Children with Neonatal Short Bowel Syndrome: Its Relationship to Gestational Age]

It has been described that children with chronic intestinal failure secondary to short bowel syndrome have an impact on growth.

To compare the growth of children with chronic intestinal failure secondary to neonatal short bowel syndrome between newborns of gestational age ≥ 36 weeks and 6 days Group 1 and < 36 weeks Group 2, evaluated at two years of age and during childhood.

Longitudinal, retrospective, analytical study of children with neonatal short bowel syndrome and chronic intestinal failure. Growth, weight/age z-score, height/age z-score and body mass index/age z-score (World Health Organization) were determined at 2 years of age; a posteriori, we analyzed the beginning and end of a period of one year between 2-9 years of age of the same patients.

Group 1: 13 patients, Group 2: 8 patients. A greater impact on height/age z-score was found in Group 2 at 2 years (p < 0.008). During the analyzed period after 2 years, it was observed that the weight/age z-score and the body mass index z-score/age remained stable, while the height/ age z-score worsened in both groups.

Children with < 36-weeks of gestational age had a greater impact on longitudinal growth at 2 years and both groups studied had a negative impact on height growth after 2 years.