Fig. 1

The diagram represents patients’ flow. We reported the overall number of potentially eligible infants (born between27⁺⁰ and 34⁺⁶ weeks' gestation, hospitalized in our NICU—which is a reference center for fetal and postnatal surgery—during the study period), the infants excluded (with reasons for exclusion), those confirmed for eligibility and included in the study, completing follow-up, and analyzed. Some infants presented ≥ 1 reason for exclusion