Procedural closure of the patent ductus arteriosus in preterm infants: a clinical practice guideline.

Importance: Transcatheter closure of the patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) is being increasingly adopted as an alternative to surgical PDA closure in preterm infants.

Objective: To develop rigorous clinical practice guideline recommendations on procedural PDA closure in preterm infants.

Methods: The principles of the GRADE (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation) Evidence-to-Decision (EtD) framework were used to develop the guideline recommendations. An e-Delphi survey of 45 experts was conducted and recommendations that reached ≥75% agreement were accepted as consensus.

Main Recommendations: Procedural PDA closure may be considered in extremely preterm infants (<28 weeks gestational age) requiring invasive mechanical ventilation >10 postnatal days and confirmed to have a large hemodynamically significant PDA, at centers with high local rates of death and/or bronchopulmonary dysplasia (conditional recommendation). If sufficient institutional expertise is available and patient characteristics are suitable, transcatheter PDA closure may be considered as the preferred approach over PDA ligation (conditional recommendation).