Seven-month developmental outcomes of very low birth weight infants enrolled in a randomized controlled trial of delayed versus immediate cord clamping

Objective:the results from our previous trial revealed that infants with delayed cord clamping (dcc) had significantly lesser intraventricular hemorrhage (ivh) and late-onset sepsis (los) than infants with immediate cord clamping (icc). a priori, we hypothesized that infants with dcc would have better motor function by 7 months corrected age.study design:infants between 24 and 31 weeks were randomized to icc or dcc and follow-up evaluation was completed at 7 months corrected age.result:we found no differences in the bayley scales of infant development (bsid) scores between the dcc and icc groups. however, a regression model of effects of dcc on motor scores controlling for gestational age, ivh, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, sepsis and male gender suggested higher motor scores of male infants with dcc.conclusion:dcc at birth seems to be protective of very low birth weight male infants against motor disability at 7 months corrected age.