Osteopenia of Prematurity in an Extremely Low-Birth-Weight Infant

Daiva Gorczyca^1, , Hanna Cebula², Elżbieta Rapior³ and Marek Michalski³

¹3rd Department and Clinic of Pediatrics, Immunology and Rheumatology of Developmental Age, Wroclaw Medical University, Wroclaw, Poland

²Department of Clinical Immunology and Pediatrics, Gromkowski Hospital, Wroclaw, Poland

³Department of Neonatology, Gromkowski Hospital, Wroclaw, Poland

Cite this paper

Daiva Gorczyca, Hanna Cebula, Elżbieta Rapior and Marek Michalski. Osteopenia of Prematurity in an Extremely Low-Birth-Weight Infant. American Journal of Medical Case Reports. 2013; 1(1):12-15. doi: 10.12691/AJMCR-1-1-5

Abstract

Osteopenia of prematurity is a relatively frequent disease in preterm infants. In many cases it remains clinically silent and it is poorly recognized until signs of rickets and pathological fractures occur. We report a case of a preterm female infant with a gestational age of 27 weeks and a birth weight of 820 g with clinical signs of osteopenia: flattened occiput, softness of the skull, generalized hypotonia, bone fragility and fractures. Early and proper supplementation of nutrients and minerals is essential to achieve sufficient bone mineralization.

Keywords

osteopenia, prematurity, bone, calcium, ELBW infant

Copyright

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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