Transition of Extremely Preterm Infants from Birth to Stable Breathing: A Secondary Analysis of the CORSAD Trial

Exploratory secondary analysis of the CORSAD trial compared a new resuscitation system (rPAP) to the standard T-piece system. This analysis focused on the subgroup of infants who were not intubated in the delivery room. The aim was to compare the use of noninvasive positive pressure ventilation (PPV), oxygen saturation, and Apgar scores for the two resuscitation systems during the 30-min intervention period.

This is secondary analysis of CORSAD trial using data from the intervention period in the delivery room. Infants in the original randomized system groups were divided into intubated and nonintubated groups. For nonintubated breathing infants, we compared demographics, the use of PPV, Apgar scores, and oxygen saturation at 5 and 10 min after birth. Generalized linear models were applied to calculate the risk difference and odds ratio with 95% CI between the two groups.

Among nonintubated infants, the use of PPV repeatedly (defined as PPV with at least 1 min of spontaneous breathing between PPV cycles) was less frequent in the rPAP group (26.8% vs. 43.3%, %RD -16.5, 95% CI [-31.7 to -1.1], p 0.04). The use of PPV after 5 min of age was also less common in the rPAP group (23.2% vs. 38.8%, %RD -15.6, 95% CI [-30.7 to -0.8], p 0.04). There were no statistically significant differences in Apgar scores or oxygen saturation levels between the groups.

In the CORSAD trial, less PPV was needed to establish stable breathing in extremely preterm infants using the rPAP compared to using the standard T-piece without significant difference in Apgar scores or oxygenation.