The importance of administration of early surfactant and nasal continuous positive airway pressure in newborns with respiratory distress syndrome

Aim: Mechanical ventilation is an invasive method and causes to important problems in the respiratory tract and lung parenchyma. The objective of our study was to investigate if administration of early surfactant and nasal continuous positive airway pressure (nCPAP) was superior to delayed surfactant administration and mechanical ventilation. Material and Methods: The study was conducted in the Van 100th Year University, Medical Faculty Hospital, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. One hundred and nine infants with respiratory distrss syndrome (RDS) with a gestational age of 32 weeks and/or below were included in the study. Surfactant was given to 61 infants in the delivery room or intensive care unit and subsequently nCPAP was administered. Surfactant was administered in 48 infants in the control group and mechanical ventilation was inititated subsequently. Informed consent was obtained from the relatives of all patients and ethics committee approval was also obtained (Approval number: 03.02.2011/15). Results: There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups in terms of gestational age, birth weight, gender, height and head circumference measurements (p > 0.05). The mean hospitalization time in the patients in the study group was 24.4 +/- 17.8 days, whereas the mean time of nCPAP was 28.4 (4-120) hours. In the study group, intracranial hemorrhage was found with a rate of 27.85%, bronchopulmonary dysplasia was found with a rate of 4.91%, pneumothorax was found with a rate of 3.27%, necrotizing enterocolitis was found with a rate of 3.27%, patent ductus arteriosus was found with a rate of 16.39, sepsis was found with a rate of 22.95% and retinopathy of prematurity was found with a rate of 1.63%. No statistically significant difference was found between the study and control groups in terms of the rates of complications. During the follow-up period, 17 (27.86%) patients were lost. The length of stay on mechanical ventilation in the study group was found to be statistically significantly shorter compared to the control group (p < 0.05). Conclusions: In our study, it was observed that administration of early surfactant and nCPAP in treatment of preterm newborns with a diagnosis of RDS markedly decreased the lenght of stay on mechanical ventilation, but had no significant impact on morbidity and mortality.