Historical Perspectives and Clinical Updates on Preterm Bottle Feeding With Noninvasive Ventilation.

The controversial topic of oral feeding while on noninvasive ventilation remains at the forefront of preterm intensive care management. The intersection of pulmonary, neurologic, and gastrointestinal maturation coalesces at a postmenstrual age that requires changes in practices compared with those used in older infants. Various animal models in the past decades aimed to gain physiological knowledge of noninvasive ventilation effects on the suck-swallow-breathe coordination sequence. However, the preterm infant poses nuanced anatomic challenges. Although concerns for oral feeding while on noninvasive ventilation include aspiration risks and potential inpatient obstacles, there is evidence to support the feasibility, initiation, and progression of oral feedings while an infant is supported on high-flow nasal cannula and continuous positive airway pressure. There is evidence to support that this may accelerate attainment of oral feeding milestones and, thus, eventual hospital discharge. More recent multidisciplinary institutional protocols may provide cautious guidance on evaluation and algorithms to assess infants who may benefit from initiation and advancement of oral feeding versus awaiting further maturation.

Decreasing Unplanned Extubations in the NICU, an Ongoing Quality Improvement Project.

Unplanned extubations (UEs) can have devastating effects on neonates. The purpose of this quality improvement project is to decrease the number of UEs in Lankenau Medical Center's 22-bed Level III NICU. The UE rate had risen to 4.6 UEs per 100 ventilator days in 2016. Transitioning to a standardized bundle for intubated infants has decreased the UE rate to less than 2 per 100 ventilator days since 2018. The UE rate continues to be monitored for ongoing accountability and further staff education when rates increase.

Failure of early non-invasive ventilation in preterm infants with respiratory distress syndrome in current care practice in Spanish level-III neonatal intensive care units - a prospective observational study.

Introduction: Despite advances in respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) management over the past decade, non-invasive ventilation (NIV) failure is frequent and associated with adverse outcomes. There are insufficient data on the failure of different NIV strategies currently used in clinical practice in preterm infants. Methods: This was a prospective, multicenter, observational study of very preterm infants [gestational age (GA) <32 weeks] admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit for RDS that required NIV from the first 30 min after birth. The primary outcome was the incidence of NIV failure, defined as the need for mechanical ventilation for <72 h of life. Secondary outcomes were risk factors associated with NIV failure and complication rates. Results: The study included 173 preterm infants with a median GA of 28 (IQR 27-30) weeks and a median birth weight of 1,100 (IQR 800-1,333) g. The incidence of NIV failure was 15.6%. In the multivariate analysis, lower GA (OR, 0.728; 95% CI, 0.576-0.920) independently increased the risk of NIV failure. Compared to NIV success, NIV failure was associated with higher rates of unfavorable outcomes, including pneumothorax, intraventricular hemorrhage, periventricular leukomalacia, pulmonary hemorrhage, and a combined outcome of moderate-to-severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia or death. Conclusion: NIV failure occurred in 15.6% of the preterm neonates and was associated with adverse outcomes. The use of LISA and newer NIV modalities most likely accounts for the reduced failure rate. Gestational age remains the best predictor of NIV failure and is more reliable than the fraction of inspired oxygen during the first hour of life.

Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) vs noninvasive positive pressure ventilation (NIPPV) vs noninvasive high frequency oscillation ventilation (NHFOV) as post-extubation support in preterm neonates: protocol for an assessor-blinded, multicenter, randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Various noninvasive respiratory support modalities are available in neonatal critical care in order to minimize invasive ventilation. Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is the more commonly used but noninvasive positive pressure ventilation (NIPPV) seems more efficacious in the early post-extubation phase, although it is not clear if NIPPV may influence longterm outcomes. A recently introduced alternative is noninvasive high frequency oscillatory ventilation (NHFOV) which might be especially useful in babies needing high constant distending pressure. Preterm neonates may receive these respiratory supports for several weeks. Nonetheless, no data are available for the longterm use of NIPPV and NHFOV; few data exist on NHFOV and clinical outcomes, although its safety and suitability are reported in a number of preliminary short-term studies. METHODS: We designed an assessor-blinded, multicenter, three-arms, parallel, pragmatic, randomized, controlled trial with a superiority design, investigating the use of CPAP vs NIPPV vs NHFOV during the whole stay in neonatal intensive care units in China. Since safety data will also be analyzed it may be considered a phase II/III trial. Moreover, subgroup analyses will be performed on patients according to prespecified criteria based on physiopathology traits: these subgroup analyses should be considered preliminary. At least 1440 neonates are supposed to be enrolled. The trial has been designed with the collaboration of international colleagues expert in NHFOV, who will also perform an interim analysis at the about 50% of the enrolment. DISCUSSION: The study is applying the best trial methodology to neonatal ventilation, a field where it is often difficult to do so for practical reasons. Nonetheless, ours is also a physiology-driven trial, since interventions are applied based on physiological perspective, in order to use ventilatory techniques at their best. The pragmatic design will increase generalizability of our results but subgroup analyses according to predefined physiopathological criteria are also previewed trying to have some advantages of an explanatory design. Since not all clinicians are well versed in all respiratory techniques, the training is pivotal. We intend to apply particular care to train the participating units: a specific 3-month period and several means have been dedicated to this end. TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT03181958 (registered on June 9, 2017).