Compare severity of bronchopulmonary dysplasia in neonates with respiratory distress syndrome treated with surfactant to without surfactant.

BACKGROUND

The utilization of surfactant replacement therapy had been limited in treatment of respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) due to the high cost especially in developing countries. Nowadays, the National Health Insurance Policy has covered the cost of surfactant for the patients. Therefore, bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) may be found increasing due to increased survival in patients with severe RDS.

OBJECTIVE

To compare immediate treatment outcome of severity of BPD and outcome after hospital discharge in neonates with RDS who were treated with or without surfactant.

STUDY DESIGN

Retrospective cohort study.

MATERIAL AND METHOD

The data of 54 infants who developed BPD after RDS at Queen Sirikit National Institute of Child Health between January 1st, 2003 and December 31th, 2005 were kept in database format. The database was analyzed for difference between groups and the outcome of immediate treatment, severity of BPD and outcome after hospital discharge were compared. The study group was BPD cases from RDS treated with surfactant compared to control (BPD cases from RDS treated without surfactant) groups.

RESULTS

Forty-three (80%) from fifty-four cases had completed data and were included into the present study. There was no statistically significant difference in maternal conditions and neonatal conditions between groups. Antenatal steroid was prescribed more often in RDS without surfactant group than surfactant group. The mean birth weight and gestational age in surfactant and without surfactant groups were 1,179.1 +/- 274.3 gm vs. 1,114.4 +/- 338.3 gm and 29 +/- 1.6 weeks vs. 29.2 +/- 2.7 weeks respectively, but no significant differences were observed between groups. To compare the severity of RDS, only 17.6% of moderate to severe RDS in the control group was found, whereas 100% was found in the study group. Moderate to severe BPD cases were found more often in the control group (70.6%) than in the study group (61.6%), but no statistically significant difference was shown. The immediate complications, e.g. pneumothorax (5.9%) and pneumomediastinum (5.9%) were found in the control group, but pulmonary hemorrhage occurred more often in the study group than the control group (11.5% vs. 5.9%). For long-term follow-up, the development outcome was not different between groups.

CONCLUSION

The present study revealed no statistically significant difference in severity of BPD in neonates with RDS treated with and without surfactant groups. In addition, surfactant was useful in moderate to severe RDS because no early complication such as air leak syndrome was found in this group.