ClinicalTrials.Veeva

Menu

Feeding Tube Practices and Colonization of the Preterm Stomach in the First Week of Life

G

Gorm Greisen

Status

Completed

Conditions

Preterm Birth

Treatments

Procedure: Feeding tube daily replacement

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT02830503
H-15021673

Details and patient eligibility

About

Project summary

Rationale

Many NICU's replace their feeding tubes once a week or more rarely in order to avoid disturbing the infants. The researchers discovered that there are high concentrations of potentially pathogenic bacteria in the yield of resident nasogastric feeding tubes, even within one day of use (own data, manuscript submitted). Preterm infants are vulnerable to the colonization of the gut, and development of dysbiosis might lead to necrotizing enterocolitis. The researchers speculate if replacing the resident feeding tube every day and thereby decreasing the amount of potentially pathogenic bacteria given to the infants via the feeding tube will lead to fewer bacteria present in the upper part of the gastrointestinal tract of the infant and hence a reduced competition with probiotic colonization.

Objectives

The investigators plan to conduct an intervention study in premature infants receiving probiotics (< 32 weeks of gestation) where the feeding tube will be replaced every day in the intervention group and once a week (standard practice) in the control group. The main outcome will be bacterial concentration in the stomach after one week of life.

Methods

The study is a prospective, randomized controlled trial in preterm infants. Infants will be randomized to the intervention group in which the tube is replaced every day or the control group which will follow normal practice in the department. The intervention will last one week. The infants will be followed until discharge. The investigators plan to include 11 infants in each group.

Primary outcome

Concentration of bacteria in gastric aspirates on day seven.

Enrollment

23 patients

Sex

All

Ages

1 to 48 hours old

Volunteers

No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

  • Under 32 weeks GA at birth
  • Admission time considered to be more than seven days
  • Signed informed consent within 48 hours after birth

Exclusion criteria

  • Transfer to another hospital within seven days
  • Major gastrointestinal malformations
  • No tube feeding within first 48 h of birth

Trial design

Primary purpose

Prevention

Allocation

Randomized

Interventional model

Parallel Assignment

Masking

None (Open label)

23 participants in 2 patient groups

Intervention
Experimental group
Description:
Feeding tube daily replacement
Treatment:
Procedure: Feeding tube daily replacement
Control
No Intervention group
Description:
Feeding tubes replaced as normal practice in the department (normally once a week).

Trial contacts and locations

1

Loading...

Data sourced from clinicaltrials.gov

Clinical trials

Find clinical trialsTrials by location
© Copyright 2026 Veeva Systems