MedPage Today Action Points
- Explain to interested patients that the findings reported here are the short-term results of a much longer study and that the researchers advise waiting for those results before making clinical decisions.
HAMILTON, Ontario, May 18 — Caffeine therapy for apnea of prematurity reduced the need for continuous positive airway pressure and mechanical ventilation, as well as the likelihood of bronchopulmonary dysplasia.These are the secondary, short-term findings from the Caffeine for Apnea of Prematurity Trial Group, a large, international, randomized, placebo-controlled trial that will eventually provide data on the long-term (18 to 21 months) efficacy and safety of methylxanthine therapy in very-low-birth-weight infants.
The early outcomes were reported because of their clinical relevance, said Barbara Schmidt, M.D., at McMaster University here, and colleagues, in the May 18 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. The caffeine study’s long-term primary outcomes will report composite outcomes, including death, cerebral palsy, cognitive delay, deafness, and blindness, they said.
The report included 2,006 infants with birth weights of 500 g to 1,250 g, considered by clinicians to be eligible for methylxanthines to prevent or treat apnea of to facilitate extubation during the first 10 days of life. All infants were followed to their first discharge home, while long-term follow-up is still under way.
Posted by admin at 10:32 AM. Filed under: Latest News, Prematurity
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