Objective: Postoperative nutrition of newborns undergoing heart surgery (HS) is ill-defined. We compared the postoperative growth rates (grams/day) of neonates with congenital heart defects (CHDs) fed with their own mothers' milk (HU), a starting formula (SF; 67 kcal/100 mL), or a "preterm formula" (PF; 80 kcal/100 mL).
Patients and methods: We studied 122 newborns undergoing HS: 81 underwent corrective surgery (group A), and 41 palliative surgery (group B).
Results: No statistically significant differences were found in the growth rate between group A and B. Moreover, in both groups, no differences in terms of growth rate between infants fed HU, SF, or PF were observed. This was also true when analyses were limited to infants undergoing HS either with or without cardiopulmonary bypass.
Conclusions: In neonates undergoing HS, human milk allowed a growth rate similar to that observed with starting formulas and "preterm formulas". This effect may depend on the particular features of human milk and its protective properties for the intestinal mucosa.