Tag Archives: BPD

Why doesn’t closing the PDA help preterm infants?

I have been continuing to think about this issue, so will subject you all to some of my thoughts. The large RCTs of medication for closure of the PDA show no benefit, and some evidence of harms, but we all … Continue reading

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Should we ever close the PDA?

The latest large multicentre RCT has just been published. Laughon MM, et al. Expectant Management vs Medication for Patent Ductus Arteriosus in Preterm Infants. JAMA. 2025. In this trial, infants of 22 to 28 weeks GA were randomized at between … Continue reading

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Neonatal Research Shorts : October 2025

Afifi J, et al. Atropine Versus Placebo for Neonatal Nonemergent Intubation: A Randomized Clinical Trial. J Pediatr. 2025;286:114719 I had thought this was a settled issue, Neil Finer showed many years ago that atropine alone decreased bradycardias during intubation. But … Continue reading

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Should we be giving erythropoietin, or analogues, to preterm infants?

In some pre-clinical models, erythropoietin acts as a neuroprotective agent, which led to the performance of clinical trials to determine whether there was a positive impact on outcomes of the preterm. The latest study has just been published, and it … Continue reading

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Prolonging CPAP in the preterm to improve pulmonary outcomes

I wrote about this trial after last year’s PAS meeting, mentioning that it looked like a potential significant improvement in respiratory care of the preterm The full publication confirms that is a real possibility. McEvoy CT, et al. Extended Continuous … Continue reading

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Surfactant plus Budesonide? Not a PLUSS for outcomes

Many of us were already aware of the general direction of the results of this trial, a multi-centre RCT of surfactant with or without budesonide (Manley BJ, et al. Intratracheal Budesonide Mixed With Surfactant for Extremely Preterm Infants. JAMA. 2024), … Continue reading

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What should saturation targets be in established chronic lung disease with pulmonary hypertension?

This question has been puzzling me recently, as we are trying to evaluate our current approach, and whether it needs to be changed. My bias has been that oxygen is toxic, and we should only give the minimum needed to … Continue reading

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The role of Ureaplasma in Chronic Lung Disease of Prematurity

There have long been questions about the possible role of ureaplasma in the pathogenesis of BPD. Studies have shown a statistical association between maternal colonization and BPD, between placentas showing evidence of the germ, and between neonatal endotracheal colonization and … Continue reading

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Vitamin A for prevention of lung disease in the preterm

Previous studies have shown that vitamin A supplementation can reduce the frequency of BPD, but the practice has not become widespread. In part, I think, it is because repeated intramuscular injections of vitamin A are the route that has been … Continue reading

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Is there any indication to close the PDA?

Yet another trial of PDA treatment and attempted closure with a null result. Baby-OSCAR was a UK multi-center masked RCT of ibuprofen treatment of 23 to <29 week infants who were screened with echocardiogram within the first 72 hours of … Continue reading

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