ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the clinical efficacy of nasal synchronous intermittent mandatory ventilation (nSIMV) in premature infants with severe respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) after extubation.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A retrospective analysis on the clinical date of 126 premature infants with severe RDS who were hospitalized in the NICU between January 2013 and May 2015 was performed. Sixty-one premature infants who were hospitalized in the NICU between January 2013 and March 2014 received nasal continuous positive airway pressure (nCPAP) (nCPAP group) and 65 premature infants who were hospitalized in the NICU between April 2014 and May 2015 received nSIMV (nSIMV group). The blood gas analysis indexes, the rate of extubation failure, the causes of extubation failure and the incidence of complications were compared between the two groups.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>After 4 hours of treatment, the pH value, PaO2, SaO2 and oxygenation index in the nSIMV group were significantly higher than in the nCPAP group (P<0.05), meanwhile, the PaCO2 in the nSIMV group were significantly lower than in the nCPAP group (P<0.05). The rates of extubation failure in the nSIMV and nCPAP groups were 9% (6/65) and 30% (18/61) respectively (P<0.05). The extubation failure in the nSIMV and nCPAP groups was caused by hyoxemia (2% vs 5%; P>0.05), hypercapnia (6% vs 11%; P>0.05) and apnea (2% vs 13%; P<0.05). There were no differences in respirator support time, full enteral feeding time, the time to regain birth weight and the length of hospitalization between two groups (P>0.05). After treatment, the incidence of abdominal distension in the nSIMV group was significantly lower than in the nCPAP group (9% vs 30%; P<0.05) and there were no differences in the incidences of feeding intolerance, necrotizing enterocolitis, intraventricular hemorrhage, retinopathy of prematurity and bronchopulmonory dysplasia between the two groups.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>nSIMV for premature infants with severe RDS after extubation not only significantly improves lung function and reduces the rate of extubation failure, also results in a lower incidence of gastrointestinal side effects and does not increase the incidence of complications.</p>