Current Strategies to Optimize Nutrition and Growth in Newborns and Infants with Congenital Heart Disease: A Narrative Review

Guglielmo Salvatori, Domenico Umberto De Rose, Anna Claudia Massolo, Neil Patel, Irma Capolupo, Paola Giliberti, Melania Evangelisti, Pasquale Parisi, Alessandra Toscano, Andrea Dotta, Giovanni Di Nardo
2022 Journal of Clinical Medicine  
(1) Objective: This review aims to identify the clinical and practical barriers to optimizing nutrition in newborn infants with congenital heart disease (CHD) and to describe updated evidence-based recommendations for clinical and nutritional management of these patients in a narrative review. (2) Research Methods and Procedures: We conducted a search of the relevant literature published from 2000 to December 2021. (3) Results: CHD patients undergo several nutritional challenges related to the
more » ... nderlying cardiac disease anomaly, the potential increased risk of NEC, and delayed enteral feeding, resulting in inadequate energy intake and sub-optimal growth, increased morbidity and mortality. (4) Conclusions: To optimize nutrition and growth in newborn infants with CHD, standardized protocols should be implemented. Regular nutritional and growth assessment with a multi-disciplinary team is essential. We propose a decisional algorithm that may represent a potentially useful tool to guide clinicians to optimize growth and nutrition.
doi:10.3390/jcm11071841 pmid:35407451 pmcid:PMC8999967 fatcat:4kizwdymf5csjfmruye62mpw5e