A Randomized Double Blind Controlled Trial of Early Versus Late Caffeine for Extremely Low Birth Weight Newborns

Parents will be approached either prenatally for an impending delivery of ELBW newborn or within 16 hours of birth. 90 newborns will be randomized to receive early caffeine within 24 hours of life (the "study drug") and 90 newborns will receive a placebo. Either the early caffeine (the "study drug") or placebo will be continued throughout the first 15 days of life. Newborns in the early caffeine group will receive an IV bolus of 20mg/kg followed by IV or PO 5mg/kg daily for 14 days. The clinical team can choose to give PO caffeine if the newborn tolerates >75% of fluid goals by feeds. The clinical and research teams will be blinded; neither will know whether the newborn is receiving early caffeine or placebo. The clinical team will be allowed to use open labeled caffeine as deemed medically necessary after 24 hours of receiving either the early caffeine or placebo. Often this clinical need would be at the time of extubation (peri-extubation) and comprises the "late" caffeine group, which is also the placebo group. Perinatal and postnatal clinical characteristics will be prospectively collected. Clinical team may choose to hold study drug if newborns are placed on high frequency ventilation or if they need sedation drips for surgical procedures. Two blood samples will be collected one at day 7 and one at day 14 for caffeine levels. Data safety monitoring committee will be review mortality and morbidity in each group on a quarterly basis or after recruitment of every 30 newborns whichever happens earlier.