Effects of Dextrose Gel in Preventing and Treating Neonatal Hypoglycemia: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Neonatal hypoglycemia is one of the major complications in neonatal wards, requiring rapid diagnosis and treatment to prevent its complications. Dextrose gel is used as a cheap and safe choice. Thus, the present systematic review and meta-analysis study aimed to investigate the effects of oral dextrose gel in preventing and treating neonatal hypoglycemia. To find the relevant articles, the national databases, including Barekat Gostar, SID, Magiran, IranDoc, and international databases, including PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane, and Google Scholar were consulted with standard keywords. The data were analyzed using the STATA 14 software, while the P value < 0.05 was considered significant. In 9 articles with a sample size of 8755 neonates, the mean neonatal weight ranged from 2890 to 3669 g. The share of neonates born through normal vaginal delivery equaled 61%, while 16% had low birth weight (below 2500 g), 16% had high birth weight (above 4500 g), 51% had diabetic mothers, 20% were premature, and 88% were singleton. Oral dextrose gel reduced the risk of neonatal hypoglycemia by OR=0.83 (95% CI: 0.75-0.93). However, neonatal hypoglycemia treatment with oral dextrose gel had an OR=0.78 (95% CI: 0.57-1.07), which was not statistically significant. Oral dextrose gel was effective in preventing neonatal hypoglycemia.