Chronic lung disease in Saudi preterm infants

Abstract

Background: Despite advances in neonatal medicine, chronic lung disease (CLD) remains a major cause of pulmonary morbidity in preterm infants. Objective: To determine the prevalence of CLD and to identify the possible risk factors that may predict the development of CLD. Patients and Methods: A retrospective study of preterm infants admitted to the NICU between July 2011 and June 2022 with gestational age (GA) < 32 weeks and birth weight (BW) < 1500 g was performed. Results: A total of 706 preterm infants were included in the study, of whom 202 (28.6%) infants developed CLD. Of the 202 preterm infants who developed CLD, 194 survivors; 93 (47.9%) had mild, 58 (29.9%) had moderate and 43 (22.2%) had severe CLD. Multivariate analysis showed that low GA (odds ratio [OR]: 0.62; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.43-0.98), low BW (OR: 20.6; 95% CI: 17.1-29.3), use of mechanical ventilation (OR: 1.07; 95% CI: 0.87-1.54), higher peak inspiratory pressure (PIP) (OR: 1.48; 95% CI: 1.44-1.91), higher fraction of inspired oxygen (FiO2) use (OR: 0.11; 95% CI: 0.05-0.19), duration of mechanical ventilation (OR: 3.56; 95% CI: 4.28-3.75) and frequent blood transfusion (OR: 0.65; 95% CI: 0.53-0.87) were identified as the main risk factors for the development of CLD. Conclusions: The prevalence of CLD among preterm infants was 28.6%. The most relevant predictors of CLD were GA, BW, mechanical ventilation, higher PIP, higher FiO2 use, duration of mechanical ventilation and frequent blood transfusion.