Pasteurization of Mother's Own Milk for Preterm Infants

Pasteurization of Mother's Own Milk for Preterm Infants : a Randomized Trial.

We hypothesize that short term infection-related benefits of human milk feeding are decreased by the process of pasteurization. Primary objective of the study is to compare the incidence of late-onset sepsis in very low birth weight infants assigned randomly to receive either pasteurized or raw expressed mothers'own milk.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Sepsis
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: pasteurization of mother's own milk

Detailed Description

In this prospective, randomized, controlled trial, all patients born before 32 weeks of gestational age and/or with birth weight below 1500 g admitted to the tertiary neonatal intensive care unit(NICU) of the University Hospitals Leuven within 24 hours of birth, are eligible for inclusion in the study except for infants who died within the first 24 hours. Infants whose mothers intend to breastfeed will be randomly assigned, using a digital system, to receive either raw or pasteurized mother's own milk. The duration of the study is from birth to eight weeks of age or to discharge from the NICU, whichever occurs first. The need to ensure proper handling of the milk precludes true blinding of the caregivers. The institutional review board approved the study and written informed parental consent iss obtained before enrolment.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 303
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Belgium
  • Leuven, Belgium, 3000
    • University Hospitals

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 1 day to 2 days (Child)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• all patients born before 32 weeks of gestational age and/or with BW below 1500 g admitted to the tertiary NICU of the University Hospitals Leuven within 24 hours of birth

Exclusion Criteria:

• died within 24 hours after birth
• no consent
• admitted after 24 hours of birth

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: raw milk; Infants who were assigned to the raw group received fresh or thawed milk from their own mother, cultured weekly with a semi-quantitative analysis. Raw milk was withheld if it contained any Gram-negative organisms, S. aureus or enterococci.	Other: pasteurization of mother's own milk; mother's milk heat treated at 62,5°C for 30 minutes with a Sterifeed® S75 TES pasteurizer.; Other Names: pasteurization
Active Comparator: pasteurized milk; Infants who were assigned to pasteurization received own mother's milk heat treated at 62,5°C for 30 minutes with a Sterifeed® S75 TES pasteurizer.	Other: pasteurization of mother's own milk; mother's milk heat treated at 62,5°C for 30 minutes with a Sterifeed® S75 TES pasteurizer.; Other Names: pasteurization

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
incidence of late-onset sepsis	the incidence of proven late-onset sepsis, occurring more than 48 hours after birth, with growth of a pathogen or coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) cultured from blood, obtained from a peripheral vein under aseptic conditions, combined with the acute onset of two or more predefined clinical signs and, only in case of growth of a CoNS isolate, at least one laboratory parameter of systemic infection (such as elevated C-reactive protein, left shift or leukopenia).	up to 8 weeks of age

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
necrotizing enterocolitis	Secondary end points were the incidence of clinical sepsis ; infection site other than bloodstream; the antibiotic utilization rate ; necrotizing enterocolitis stages II and III ; intraventricular hemorrhage or periventricular leucomalacia; need of respiratory support; chronic lung disease ; severe retinopathy of prematurity; the length of NICU stay for survivors and in-NICU mortality.	up to 8 weeks of age

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Universitaire Ziekenhuizen KU Leuven
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Veerle Cossey, Dr, Universitaire Ziekenhuizen KU Leuven

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: March 1, 2006
• Primary Completion (Actual): February 1, 2010
• Study Completion (Actual): April 1, 2012

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: April 18, 2012
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 18, 2012
• First Posted (Estimated): April 19, 2012

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimated): December 6, 2023
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 29, 2023
• Last Verified: November 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: human milk; very low birth weight infants; pasteurization
• Other Study ID Numbers: ML 3398