Fantoms

When to treat with surfactant? More than 30 years after surfactant treatment came into widespread use for preterm infants there is still a lot of variation in practice. Thresholds for treatment in infants who are stabilised on non-invasive respiratory support vary widely. Having been involved in discussions about trial protocols relating to respiratory support and outcomes I know that our long and tortuous journey of treatment preferences means that this is an area where there are strongly held views and limited equipoise. Aoife Branagan and colleagues report a network meta-analysis of randomised trials of different treatment strategies. They found no convincing evidence to support any particular FiO2 threshold for deciding on treatment. They reviewed 14 trials that enrolled 5298 participants and found no evidence to prefer a threshold of 30, 40 or 50% oxygen. There was limited evidence that morbidity may be increased at a threshold of 60%....
Source: Archives of Disease in Childhood - Fetal and Neonatal Edition - Category: Perinatology & Neonatology Authors: Tags: Highlights from this issue Source Type: research