PhD defence J.A. (José) Hordijk

The Early versus Late Parenteral Nutrition in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PEPaNIC) multicenter, randomized controlled trial (RCT) was conducted to investigate the effect of withholding parental nutrition (PN) during the first week of critical illness compared with the standard protocol of starting (supplemental) PN early from day one of pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) admission. Allocation to the Late PN group resulted in nutritional intakes below recommendations. In total, 1,440 critically ill children admitted to the PICU were included in the study. The short-term outcomes were promising with a lower incidence of newly acquired infections, and a shorter stay at the hospital and PICU in the group of children allocated to the Late PN group compared to the group of children allocated to the Early PN group. The long-term follow-up of the PEPaNIC trial is described in this thesis. Outcome measurements are medical assessment, neurocognitive assessment (including neuropsychological tests for general intelligence, visual-motor integration, alertness, motor-coordination, executive functioning, and memory), and parent-reported outcomes (executive functioning, emotional and behavioral problems, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL)).

Due to corona, the PhD defences do not take place publicly in the usual way in the Senate Hall of the Professor Andries Querido Room. The candidates will defend their dissertation either in a small group or online.