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CompletedNCT01390753Updated Feb 14, 2017

Role of Human Milk Bank in the Protection of Severe Respiratory Disease in Very Low Birth Weight Premature Infants

An interventional study of Human donor milk in Respiratory Infections, sponsored by Fundacion Infant. Completed at 1 site in Argentina. Open to participants aged Up to 1 Month. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2017-02-14.

Sponsored by Fundacion Infant · Not applicable, Interventional, and Prevention

Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
300
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
Up to 1 Month
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Acute respiratory infections are the leading cause of hospitalization in premature infants worldwide. Severity rates are particularly high in developing countries. Numerous viruses can cause severe disease, but the most frequent agent of hospitalization is respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). In a recent study in Argentina, 58% of RSV infected VLBW infants required hospitalization and 19% required mechanical ventilation. One every twenty infected infants died. Unlike industrialized nations, VLBW infants in developing countries often lack access to prophylaxis against RSV with a commercially available monoclonal antibody (palivizumab). No vaccine or preventive intervention is available against any respiratory virus for infants younger than 6 months of age in developing countries and the public sector of most middle-income countries.

The protective role of breastfeeding against respiratory infections in developing countries is well established. But while similar beneficial effects have been described for premature infants, the dropout rate for breastfeeding in families exposed to the uncertainties and stress of the early months of life in the neonatal intensive care unit is very high. The World Health Organization recommends the use of Human Milk Donor Banks to feed infants that cannot be breastfed by their own mothers. These banks are established with the purpose of collecting, screening, processing (including pasteurizing), testing and distributing donated human milk. The potential benefit of donated milk against acute disease elicited by RSV is unknown. The investigators propose to study the role of supplemental donated human milk in the prevention of hospitalizations caused by RSV in non-breastfeeding premature infants. Since the investigators expect the benefits of breast milk to extend beyond protection against RSV, the effect of human milk against respiratory infections elicited by other viruses will also be evaluated.

02

Conditions studied

  • Respiratory Infections
03

In context

Respiratory Tract Infections

1,052 studies on the registry are indexed under Respiratory Tract Infections; 147 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 300 is above the median of 196 across 715 interventional studies indexed under Respiratory Tract Infections.

Browse Respiratory Tract Infections studies →

Lead sponsor

Fundacion Infant is the lead sponsor of 3 studies on the registry; none are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
Up to 1 Month
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • VLBW preterm neonates (birth weight \<1,500 g at birth; gestational age \<37 weeks) born alive at any of the two participating maternity hospitals integrating our network in Argentina will be enrolled in the study after signature of informed consent.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • VLBW infants older than one month of age (e.g.: transferred from another institution), or formula fed for over ten days, or with congenital heart disease, congenital anomalies of the respiratory tract (i.e.: tracheoesophageal fistula, pulmonary hypoplasia, diaphragmatic hernia), immune suppression, severe malformations affecting breathing (i.e. anencephaly) as well as infants who die prior to completion of the first questionnaire, or living more than 40 km away from the Hospital will be excluded from participation. Infants born from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) positive mothers will also be excluded
05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Prevention
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Quadruple (Participant, Care provider, Investigator, Outcomes assessor)
Enrollment
300 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • No intervention
    Preterm formula
  • Active comparator
    Donor milk + preterm formula

    Human milk from a donor bank

    Dietary Supplement: Human donor milk

  • No intervention
    Breastfeeding + formula
  • No intervention
    Breasfeeding

Interventions

  • Dietary supplementHuman donor milk
06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Number of respiratory episodes in premature infants

    Time frame: During the first year of life

07

Study locations

1 site
  • Fundacion INFANT
    Buenos Aires, 1406, Argentina
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Quigley M, Embleton ND, Meader N, McGuire W. Donor human milk for preventing necrotising enterocolitis in very preterm or very low-birthweight infants. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2024 Sep 6;9(9):CD002971. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD002971.pub6. PubMed 39239939 ↗

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

09

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
Not marked actual or estimatedDates not marked actual or estimated

The record gives a start of Apr 2012, a primary completion of Dec 2016 and a completion of Dec 2016. It does not say whether these dates are actual or estimated.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Jul 7, 2011
First posted
Jul 11, 2011
Start
Apr 2012
Primary completionActual
Dec 2016
CompletionActual
Dec 2016
Last update
Feb 14, 2017
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Feb 14, 2017, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT01390753
Lead sponsor
Fundacion Infant
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Jul 11, 2011
Start date
Apr 2012
Primary completion
Dec 2016
Completion
Dec 2016
Last update
Feb 14, 2017

Study contacts

Fernando P Polack, MD
principal investigator · Fundacion Infant

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is completed, as verified in Feb 2017. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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