To study the efficacy of 3 different vitamin K birth prophylaxis regimens in infants born premature.

This was an open-label, parallel-group, randomized clinical trial conducted in a tertiary neonatal care unit in India. Infants born very preterm (≤32 weeks) and/or with very low birth weight (≤1500 g) were included. In each arm, 25 babies were enrolled. Babies were randomized to receive 1.0 mg, 0.5 mg, or 0.3 mg intramuscular (IM) vitamin K1 at birth. Protein induced by vitamin K absence - II (PIVKA-II) levels were assessed at birth, and on days 5 and 28, along with the frequency of death, bleeding manifestations, intraventricular hemorrhage, necrotizing enterocolitis, bilirubin levels, and duration of phototherapy. The primary outcome was comparison of PIVKA-II levels on day 5 of life.

All the 3 regimens resulted in similar proportion of vitamin K subclinical sufficiency (PIVKA-II < 0.028 AU/mL) infants on day 5 (1 mg – 100%; 0.5 mg – 91.7%; 0.3 mg – 91.7%, P = .347), with no significant difference in median (IQR) PIVKA-II levels (AU/mL): 1 mg 0.006 (0.004, 0.009); 0.5 mg 0.008 (0.004, 0.009); 0.3 mg 0.006 (0.003, 0.009), P = .301. However, on day 28, there was a significant decrease in the proportion of vitamin K–sufficient infants in the 0.3-mg IM group (72.7%) compared with the 1.0-mg (100%) or 0.5-mg (91.3) groups. The 1.0-mg group had significantly greater bilirubin levels and duration of phototherapy. None of the other clinical outcomes were statistically different.

Both 1-mg and 0.5-mg IM vitamin K birth prophylaxis resulted in high sufficiency on follow-up, compared with 0.3 mg. The current recommendation of 0.5-1 mg IM vitamin K birth prophylaxis for infants born preterm, needs to be continued.

CTRI/2022/02/040396.