Cold Milk for Dysphagia in Preterm Infants

  • STATUS
    Recruiting
  • days left to enroll
    53
  • participants needed
    42
  • sponsor
    NYU Langone Health
Updated on 22 March 2022

Summary

It is estimated that 30-70% of very low birth weight (VLBW) preterm infants will be diagnosed with swallowing dysfunction (dysphagia), which often leads to airway compromise in the form of laryngeal penetration and/or tracheal aspiration during oral feeding attempts. Chronic airway compromise results in a persistent inflammatory state, with disease progression that can be devastating for already fragile and developmentally immature lungs in preterm infants. At this time, there are limited therapeutic options for dysphagia in VLBW infants during oral feeding. In a recent publication, our research group was the first to demonstrate that short-duration of oral feeding with cold liquid reduces dysphagia occurrence from 71% to 26%. However, these data must be further validated for the effectiveness and safety of a full duration feeding before being recommended for routine clinical practice.

The objective is to identify preliminary evidence for the efficacy and safety of feeding full oral cold milk for dysphagia management in preterm infants. We hypothesize that oral feeding of cold milk in VLBW preterm infants with dysphagia will improve suck/swallow/breathe coordination and decrease penetration/ aspiration to the airway. We further hypothesize that cold milk intervention will have no adverse effects on intestinal blood flow, as assessed by Doppler Ultrasound. This is significant because there is a critical need to identify effective and safe evidence-based treatment options for dysphagia management in preterm infants.

This prospective study will seek to enroll Subjects who meet the following inclusion criteria: 1) VLBW (birth weight less than 1,500g and less than 32 weeks gestation), 2) admitted to NYU-Winthrop NICU, 3) Post-menstrual age (PMA) > 35 weeks at the time of the study, 4) receiving no or minimum respiratory support (<1 lit/min low-flow nasal cannula), 5) tolerating at least 50% of their enteral feeding orally, 6) having symptoms of swallowing dysfunction during oral feeding (clinical dysphagia) and 7) referred by the medical team for video fluoroscopic swallow study (VFSS) and/or fiberoptic endoscopic evaluation of swallowing (FEES).

To assess the efficacy of cold milk in treating dysphagia, study subjects will first have an oral motor feeding assessment using an FDA approved device called the nFant® Feeding Solution as well as VFSS and/or FEES. To assess the safety of using cold milk, subjects will receive a doppler ultrasound before and after the ingestion of cold liquid feeding to assess the mesenteric blood flow.

Details
Condition Dysphagia of Newborn
Treatment Standard room temperature (RTS) feeding of milk/formula, Cold temperature (CS, at 4-9°C) of milk/formula
Clinical Study IdentifierNCT04421482
SponsorNYU Langone Health
Last Modified on22 March 2022

Eligibility

Yes No Not Sure

Inclusion Criteria

VLBW (birth weight less than 1,500g and less than 32 weeks gestation)
admitted to NYU-Winthrop NICU
PMA > 35 weeks at the time of the study
receiving no or minimum respiratory support (<1 lit/min low-flow nasal cannula)
tolerating at least 50% of their enteral feeding orally and
having symptoms of swallowing dysfunction during oral feeding (clinical dysphagia)
referred by the medical team for VFSS and/or FEES assessments

Exclusion Criteria

Infants with other comorbidities, such as IUGR, upper airway anomalies, brain injury
neuromuscular disease, or life-threatening congenital disease
Clear my responses

How to participate?

Step 1 Connect with a study center
What happens next?
  • You can expect the study team to contact you via email or phone in the next few days.
  • Sign up as volunteer  to help accelerate the development of new treatments and to get notified about similar trials.

You are contacting

Investigator Avatar

Primary Contact

site

Additional screening procedures may be conducted by the study team before you can be confirmed eligible to participate.

Learn more

If you are confirmed eligible after full screening, you will be required to understand and sign the informed consent if you decide to enroll in the study. Once enrolled you may be asked to make scheduled visits over a period of time.

Learn more

Complete your scheduled study participation activities and then you are done. You may receive summary of study results if provided by the sponsor.

Learn more

Similar trials to consider

Loading...

Not finding what you're looking for?

Every year hundreds of thousands of volunteers step forward to participate in research. Sign up as a volunteer and receive email notifications when clinical trials are posted in the medical category of interest to you.

Sign up as volunteer

user name

Added by • 

 • 

Private

Reply by • Private
Loading...

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur, adipisicing elit. Ipsa vel nobis alias. Quae eveniet velit voluptate quo doloribus maxime et dicta in sequi, corporis quod. Ea, dolor eius? Dolore, vel!

  The passcode will expire in None.
Loading...

No annotations made yet

Add a private note
  • abc Select a piece of text from the left.
  • Add notes visible only to you.
  • Send it to people through a passcode protected link.
Add a private note