Continuous glucose monitoring: fewer excursions, no developmental win yet

A new randomized study sharply reduced reported glucose excursions in preterm infants—but found no significant neurodevelopmental benefit at two years.

THE HOT TAKE

Continuous data can expose glucose instability. It cannot, by itself, prove that correcting every excursion improves the developing brain.

A 2026 single-centre randomized trial assigned 53 preterm infants within six hours of birth to real-time continuous glucose monitoring (CGM; n=26) or blinded CGM with intermittent blood-glucose-guided care (n=27). Real-time CGM produced large reductions in the reported numbers of hypoglycaemic and hyperglycaemic episodes, both during the first week and at 32 weeks postmenstrual age.