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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutritional Immunology
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2024.1452338
This article is part of the Research Topic Efficacy of probiotic-enriched foods on digestive health and overall well-being View all articles

Comparative efficacy of different single drugs to prevent necrotizing enterocolitis in preterm infants: an update systematic review and network meta-analysis

Provisionally accepted
Jing Chen Jing Chen *Xiao Chen Xiao Chen Xiaoling Huang Xiaoling Huang Jia Liu Jia Liu Qingfeng Yu Qingfeng Yu
  • The First People's Hospital of Neijiang, Neijiang, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objective: To investigate an optimal regimen of six drugs, including lactoferrin, probiotics, prebiotics, glutamine, arginine and erythropoietin (EPO), for the prevention of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) in preterm infants. Methods: PubMed, Embase, Ovid, The Cochrane Library, and Web of Science databases were searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) investigating the efficacy of lactoferrin, probiotics, prebiotics, glutamine, arginine, and EPO in preventing NEC in preterm infants, with a cutoff date of June 20, 2024. Two authors independently screened studies and extracted all the data. Network meta-analysis (NMA) was conducted to compare the outcomes of different interventions, and group rankings were determined using the surface under the cumulative ranking curve (SUCRA). Results: A total of 89 RCTs with 26861 preterm infants were included. Arginine demonstrated the highest clinical efficacy in reducing the incidence of NEC, with probiotics being the next most effective and the placebo being the least effective. Lactoferrin was identified as the most effective intervention for reducing the incidence of NEC-associated sepsis. Prebiotics showed the highest effect on overall mortality, reducing the beginning of enteral feeding, and were associated with the shortest hospital stay. Glutamine significantly decreased the time to full enteral feeding. Conclusion: Existing literature highlights arginine as the most efficacious pharmacological agent in preventing NEC in preterm infants. It has been shown to effectively lower the rates of NEC, septicemia, and mortality, warranting its recommendation as the first-line clinical intervention. Following this, probiotics are recommended as a second option.

    Keywords: preterm infants, necrotizing enterocolitis, drugs, Network meta-analysis, randomized controlled trials

    Received: 20 Jun 2024; Accepted: 27 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Chen, Chen, Huang, Liu and Yu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Jing Chen, The First People's Hospital of Neijiang, Neijiang, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.