A Randomized Controlled Trial of Fluid Management in Transient Tachypnea of the Newborn

Detailed Summary

Transient tachypnea of the newborn (TTN) is a diagnosis given to infants born between 34 and 42 weeks gestation who develop difficulty breathing during the first days of life when no specific cause of the breathing difficulty can be identified. Little is known about why some babies develop TTN, and there have not been many formal studies of the best way to take care of babies with this disease. Babies with TTN get better on their own within three to five days after birth, but may require extra oxygen to breath well. Most physicians believe that the symptoms of TTN are related to poor clearance of fluid from the newborn's lungs. Babies with TTN have extra fluid visible on chest x-ray. Diuretics, medicines that can help clear extra lung fluid in adults and in babies with extra lung fluid for other reasons, do not to help babies with TTN. Babies with TTN need intravenous fluids to be healthy because they breathe too fast to be able to eat. Breastfed babies only get a very small amount of fluid in the first few days of life, as it normally takes several days for a new mother to begin producing breastmilk. No one has yet examined whether giving babies with TTN an amount of fluid similar to the small amount they would receive if they could breastfeed would help them recover from TTN faster. In this study, the investigators compare whether giving newborns "standard" intravenous fluid or amounts of intravenous fluid more close to what a breastfed baby would receive speeds recovery in newborns with TTN.

Study Details

Timeline

Interventions