Neurodevelopmental outcomes among extremely premature infants with linear growth restriction

Objectiveto compare neurodevelopmental outcomes in linear growth-restricted (lgr) infants born <29 weeks with and without weight gain out of proportion to linear growth.study designwe compared 2-year neurodevelopmental outcomes between infants with and without lgr and between lgr infants with and without weight gain out of proportion to linear growth. the outcomes were bayley-iii cognitive, motor, and language scores, cerebral palsy, gross motor function classification system (gmfcs) level ≥ 2, and neurodevelopmental impairment.resultin total, 1227 infants were analyzed. lgr infants were smaller and less mature at birth, had higher bmi, and had lower bayley-iii language scores (82.3 vs. 85.0, p < 0.05). among infants with lgr, infants with high bmi had lower language scores compared with those with low-to-normal bmi (80.8 vs. 83.3, p < 0.05), and were more likely to have gmfcs level ≥2 and neurodevelopmental impairment.conclusionamong infants with lgr, weight gain out of proportion to linear growth was associated with poorer neurodevelopmental outcomes.