Abstract

Little is known about the affects of long-term intravenous nutrition on brain growth and development in low birthweight infants. We report the post-mortem analysis of the brain of an infant born at 32 weeks of gestation who died 10 weeks of continuous intravenous feeding. During this time there was evidence of brain growth while somatic growth was severely restricted. Compared with normal data for brain biochemistry for 42 weeks of gestational age, measurements showed that the brain was small and biochemically immature with the cerebellum and brain stem being particularly affected.