Cumulative sucrose exposure for repeated procedural pain in preterm neonates and neurodevelopment at 18 months of corrected age: a prospective observational longitudinal study

Introduction Oral sucrose is repeatedly administered to neonates in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) to treat pain from commonly performed procedures; however, there is limited evidence on its long-term cumulative effect on neurodevelopment. We examined the association between total sucrose volumes administered to preterm neonates for pain mitigation in the NICU and their neurodevelopment at 18 months of corrected age (CA).Methods A prospective longitudinal single-arm observational study that enrolled hospitalised preterm neonates