Somatic Growth in Infants Receiving Prolonged Caffeine Therapy

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
We have evaluated the longitudinal growth of 28 premature infants who had been treated by prolonged caffeine therapy (mean: 23.8 weeks). Routine follow-up included at least 5 physical examinations with measurement of length, weight and head circumference at the beginning of caffeine therapy, at mid therapy, at the end of the therapy and at 3 and 6 months after therapy. The distribution of the infants on the growth curves according to weight, length and head circumference showed a regular increase in growth parameters. Analysis of variance was highly significant at p<0.0001. We conclude that long term caffeine treatment does not adversely influence growth parameters, at least during early infancy.