Background Our multicentre RCT showed that CeasIng Cpap At standarD criteriA (CICADA) compared to cycling off CPAP significantly reduced time on CPAP and weaning time.¹ We hypothesised that implementation of CICADA would reduce CPAP time. We compared premature babies (PB) <30 weeks gestation (GA) during the trial period (2007–2009) and post implementation of CICADA in our Neonatal Unit (2010–2012).

Methodology The study compared prospectively collected data: GA, Birth weight (BWt), Gender, corrected GA (CGA) at the: commencement of CPAP, time of ceasing CPAP and time on CPAP. Data were compared with general linear models adjusting for BWt and gender (SPSS).

Results Survival rates were 95/120(79.2%) and 118/147(80.3%) respectively. No significant differences were recorded in baseline characteristics between the two epochs (Table). The comparison of outcome measures showed CGA for starting and ceasing CPAP were not significant. Support for the hypothesis was found with significantly shorter time on CPAP in the post trial epoch (Table 1).

Conclusions The introduction of CICADA for ceasing CPAP has significantly reduced time on CPAP in PBs <30 weeks GA. CICADA may have benefits including earlier breastfeeding and lower hospitalisation costs.

Reference

1. Todd, et al . Methods of weaning preterm babies <30 weeks gestation off CPAP: A multicentre randomised controlled trial. Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal 2012: doi:10.1136/F2 of F5 adc.2011-300133: 97(4): F236–F240