The Factors Associated With Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) Failure in Late Preterm and Term Infants and Its Impact on In-Hospital Outcomes

Background and objective Late preterm and term infants commonly require continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) on admission. However, CPAP failure in this population has not been well studied. Hence, we conducted this study to determine the impact of CPAP failure and identify antenatal factors associated with it in late preterm and term infants. Materials and methods We carried out a single-center retrospective analysis of all inborn infants of 334 weeks gestational age (GA) from 2012 to 2019 who received CPAP on admission to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). CPAP failure was defined as follows: escalation in the mode of respiratory support, surfactant administration, increase in FiO2 2 >0.2 above the baseline, or absolute FiO2 2 >0.4 for 33h; within 12h of admission. In-hospital outcomes and perinatal factors were compared between CPAP-failure and success groups. Multivariate stepwise binary logistic regression analysis (LRA) was used to assess the association between antenatal factors and CPAP failure. Results Of the 272 infants included in the study, 38 (14%) failed CPAP. Infants in the failure group received a longer duration of respiratory support [median (IQR): 3.0 (5.6) vs. 0.5 (0.5)d; p<0.001], and length of stay [9 (9) vs. 4 (4)d; p<0.001]. On LRA, higher GA was associated with reduced odds of CPAP failure. Maternal hypertensive disorders, meconium-stained amniotic fluid, and group B Streptococcus (GBS)-positive status were associated with increased odds of CPAP failure. Conclusions In this cohort of late preterm and term infants, CPAP failure was associated with worse in-hospital outcomes. Lower GA, maternal hypertensive disorders, meconium-stained amniotic fluid, and GBS-positive status were associated with CPAP failure. These data, if replicated in further studies, may help develop individualized respiratory support strategies.