Continuous glucose monitoring in well term and near-term babies for monitoring hypoglycaemia

Abstract

Introduction

Advances in technology mean that continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) is becoming a standard of care for many patients requiring blood glucose monitoring. However, there is a paucity of evidence looking at the use of CGM in term babies where there is a great potential for this technology to improve care and long-term outcomes. This review aims to systematically examine the evidence around this topic.

Methods

Databases, grey literature and reference lists of included articles were searched systematically, and data was reported using narrative synthesis.

Results

Six papers were included, which found that CGM was not as accurate as blood glucose checks but identified episodes of hypoglycaemia missed by blood glucose checks and reduced the number of painful procedures required.

Conclusion

CGM has the potential to improve the care for babies at risk of hypoglycaemia, however this is based on low quality of evidence available. Further large trials are required.