Effect of Enteral Lactoferrin Administration on Invasive Fungal Infections in Preterm Neonates

Abstract

Lactoferrin is an iron binding protein and one of the main component of breast milk that showed in the last decade very promising results in the prophylaxis against neonatal sepsis, NEC, fungal infections, anaemia of prematurity and infancy. Our primary aim was to prove that LF has a beneficial effect in the prevention of IFIs in the preterm neonates in NICUs. Our study was conducted on 40 preterm neonates in the NICUs of maternity and children hospitals, faculty of medicine, Ain Shams University in the period from March 2017 to May 2017.