The neoGASTRIC trial
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The neoGASTRIC trial: Avoiding routine gastric residual volume measurement in neonatal critical care, a multi-centre randomised controlled trial
IRAS ID
321050
Contact name
Chris Gale
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Imperial College London
ISRCTN Number
ISRCTN16710849
Duration of Study in the UK
4 years, 1 months, 31 days
Research summary
About one in seven babies born in the UK each year need specialist neonatal care in a hospital because they are born too early,are born very small or have a medical condition.Ensuring these babies have enough nutrition is a key part of their care.
Premature babies are fed milk every few hours through a soft plastic tube into their stomach, called a gastric tube. As their stomachs and digestive systems are not yet ready for lots of milk, the amount given each feed is increased slowly. Some doctors and nurses regularly check how much milk is left in a baby's stomach, called 'routinely measuring gastric residual volumes'. They check because they believe it will help them know how the baby is coping with the milk feeds and they also think it may help to identify a severe disease called necrotising enterocolitis. However, others think measuring gastric volumes may be bad for babies and that it is inaccurate, uncomfortable for the baby and may actually be harmful.
We want to answer the question:Is routinely measuring gastric residual volumes good or bad for babies?To do this we will conduct a randomised controlled trial to test whether not routinely measuring gastric residual volumes, compared to routinely measuring them, helps premature babies get to full milk feeds quicker without more necrotising enterocolitis.
The trial will involve babies born more than 6 weeks early and will recruit about 7000 babies across the UK and Australia.Premature babies will either have no routine gastric residual volumes measured, or have gastric residual volumes measured regularly. This will be decided by chance: babies will have an equal chance of being in either group. The two approaches being compared are already used across the UK and Australia, so there is nothing new about either type of care. NeoGASTRIC will use an opt-out consent, designed to be as simple as possible for families.
REC name
London - Riverside Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
23/LO/0060
Date of REC Opinion
8 Feb 2023
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion