Caffeine for your baby!

[Dr. Leospace]

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Caffeine therapy for the first few days of life helps resolve breathing difficulties in babies born prematurely, according to a report in this week's New England Journal of Medicine.

Caffeine belongs to a class of compounds called methylxanthines, which are known to improve respiration. However, it was unclear if such therapy would help very preterm infants, whose lungs are too immature to work properly.

Dr. Barbara Schmidt, from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and colleagues assessed the outcomes of 2006 very low birth weight infants who were randomly assigned to get intravenous infusions of caffeine or inactive placebo for the first 10 days of life, until breathing difficulties improved.

Caffeine therapy was associated with a 37 percent reduction in the need for supplemental oxygen. In addition, caffeine infusions allowed positive airway pressure ventilation to be discontinued one week earlier.

While encouraging, the results represent only short-term outcomes, which are inadequate to assess the overall risks and benefits of neonatal intervention, the researchers warn.

"Follow-up of our study cohort to the corrected ages of 18 to 21 months and 5 years, currently in progress, is needed before one can confidently recommend the standard use of methylxanthine therapy," they say.

SOURCE: New England Journal of Medicine, May 18, 2006.

 

[Abej^a G.]

2012:

Abstract:

"Caffeine and other methylxanthines have been used to treat apnoea of prematurity for over 30 years. However, until recently, experimental evidence of the potential harm and lack of rigorous evaluation of this drug therapy in controlled clinical trials resulted in substantial uncertainty about the safety of the routine use of methylxanthines in preterm infants. The international Caffeine for Apnoea of Prematurity (CAP) trial group was formed in 1998. This collaborative research team enrolled over 2000 very low-birthweight infants in North America, Australia and Europe, and followed the children to the end of their second year of life. The CAP trial investigators showed for the first time that neonatal caffeine therapy reduces the rates of important short- and long-term morbidities such as bronchopulmonary dysplasia, severe retinopathy of prematurity, cerebral palsy and cognitive delay. Of all the neonatal treatments that have been subjected to economic evaluations, caffeine therapy is the most certain to be both cost saving and beneficial. It is therefore imperative that responsible drug manufacturers make safe and affordable formulations of caffeine available worldwide."
Published in : HAMDAN MEDICAL JOURNAL ; Vol 5, No 3 (2012) Caffeine therapy for apnoea of prematurity in very low-birthweight infants | Schmidt | HAMDAN MEDICAL JOURNAL Author Insights: Caffeine Boosts Preemies, an interview with the "first sign" of the article "New England journal of medicine"