Less invasive surfactant administration reduces incidence of severe intraventricular haemorrage in preterms with respiratory distress syndrome: a cohort study.

Objective: Less invasive surfactant administration (LISA) has proved to safely improve morbidity in extreme preterms with respiratory distress syndrome (RDS). Its effect regarding intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) remains controversial between most recent systematic reviews. We aimed to evaluate its effect over incidence of severe IVH in this population.

Study Design: We compared the incidence of IVH in a prospective cohort of consecutively born preterm infants <34 weeks' gestation receiving LISA (n = 108) with a historical cohort receiving surfactant delivery via tracheal tube and managed with mechanical ventilation (n = 100).

Results: No significant differences regarding perinatal characteristics were observed between both groups. There was a significant reduction in the incidence of severe IVH in LISA group as compared with the historical group [OR = 0.054 (95% CI 0.01-0.2) p = 0.000. NNT 5]. In addition, a significant trend towards decreased mortality was also observed in the study group [OR = 0.2 (95% CI 0.04-0.9) p = 0.027, NNT 9]. Intervention group infants also showed lower oxygenation requirements during the first 72 h post surfactant administration and a reduced incidence of pneumothorax. They were less frequently intubated [31 infants (28.4%) vs. 100 [100%]; P < 0.001] and required fewer days of mechanical ventilation. However, no significant difference in bronchopulmonary dysplasia incidence was observed between both groups.

Conclusions: LISA approach effectively reduces severe IVH in very low and low birth weight (BW) preterms with RDS. In addition we observe a significant trend towards reduction in both need and duration of MV support, air leak, and overall mortality in the intervention group.