Aluminum, a contaminant of commercial intravenous–feeding solutions, is potentially neurotoxic. We investigated the effect of perinatal exposure to intravenous aluminum on the neurologic development of infants born prematurely.

RESULTS: The 90 infants who received the standard feeding solutions had a mean (± SD) Bayley Mental Development Index of 95 ±22, as compared with 98 ±20 for the 92 infants who received the aluminum-depleted solutions (P=0.39). The former were significantly more likely (39 percent, vs. 17 percent of the latter group; P=0.03) to have a Mental Development Index of less than 85, increasing their risk of subsequent educational problems. For all 157 infants without neuromotor impairment, increasing aluminum exposure was associated with a reduction in the Mental Development Index (P=0.03), with an adjusted loss of one point per day of intravenous feeding for infants receiving the standard solutions. In preterm infants, prolonged intravenous feeding with solutions containing aluminum is associated with impaired neurologic development.