Growth and neurodevelopment outcome in symmetric versus asymmetric small for gestational age term infants

Objective:few studies compared growth and neurodevelopment outcome between asymmetric (asym) and symmetric (sym) small for gestational age (sga) term infants. we aimed at evaluating their respective outcome at 9 months postnatal age.study design:a cohort study including infants born in 2010 to 2011 with a birth weight <5th centile and a head circumference (hc) below (sym) or above (asym) the 5th centile. catch-up growth was defined as weight, height and hc ⩾−2 s.d. of world health organization reference values. neurodevelopment was evaluated with brunet–lezine test items.result:of 6586 infants, 194 were sga: 38.7% sym and 61.3% asym. the asym group showed better catch-up growth (85% versus 70%, p=0.03) with larger hc (44.9±1.6 versus 43.7±1.2 cm, p<0.0001). no difference in neurodevelopmental screening was observed between sga groups, but infants without any catch-up growth were at higher risk of delayed outcome.conclusion:term sga infants must be closely followed, regardless of their characteristics, to improve their outcome.