Clinical outcomes of preterm infants while using automated controllers during standard care: comparison of cohorts with different automated titration strategies

Objective: To compare short-term clinical outcome after using two different automated oxygen controllers (OxyGenie and CLiO2). Design: Propensity score-matched retrospective observational study. Setting: Tertiary-level neonatal unit in the Netherlands. Patients: Preterm infants (OxyGenie n=121, CLiO2 n=121) born between 24+0-29+6 weeks of gestation. Median (IQR) gestational age in the OxyGenie cohort was 28+3 (26+3.5-29+0) vs 27+5 (26+5-28+3) in the CLiO2 cohort, respectively 42% and 46% of infants were male and mean (SD) birth weight was 1034 (266) g vs 1022 (242) g. Interventions: Inspired oxygen was titrated by OxyGenie (SLE6000) or CLiO2 (AVEA) during respiratory support. Main outcome measures: Mortality, retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), bronchopulmonary dysplasia and necrotising enterocolitis. Results: Fewer infants in the OxyGenie group received laser coagulation for ROP (1 infant vs 10; risk ratio 0.1 (95% CI 0.0 to 0.7); p=0.008), and infants stayed shorter in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) (28 (95% CI 15 to 42) vs 40 (95% CI 25 to 61) days; median difference 13.5 days (95% CI 8.5 to 19.5); p