Background: Although animal data show a clear advantage of HFOV compared with CMV in the therapy for IRDS, clinical data are still heterogeneous. We have compared our clinical results of HFOV with those of CMV to evaluate the potential benefit.
Patients and methods: During the observation period primary care of all extremely low birth weight infants was done in a standardised way with a restricted indication for endotracheal intubation. Intubated patients received surfactant immediately after intubation. Patients requiring an FiO (2) > 0.4 after administration of surfactant received HFOV.
Results: 52 patients were included into the study. 21 received CMV and 31 received HFOV. There were no differences between both groups in mortality and morbidity, but patients in the HFOV group were significantly more immature and smaller than those in the CMV group. They also had higher CRIB, SNAP and SNAP-PE scores, thus having a much higher risk of morbidity and mortality.
Conclusion: In our study babies who were extremely immature and small might have had a profit from the very early administration of surfactant and start of HFOV immediately after endotracheal intubation. Similar results in other small retrospective analyses and also in animal experiments suggest the need for a large randomised controlled trial using early surfactant administration and starting HFOV immediately after intubation.