LISA Catheter With Marked vs. Unmarked Tip in Extremely Low Birth Weight Infants With RDS: a Crossover Randomized Controlled Manikin Trial

Although less invasive surfactant administration (LISA) offers some advantages in ventilation procedure and neonatal outcomes, achieving the correct depth in the trachea using a LISA catheter may be difficult. This may have some drawbacks such as impaired surfactant administration (reducing the efficacy of the procedure) or prolonged duration of the laryngoscopy (aggravating the invasiveness of the procedure).

The aims of the present study should be: i) positioning of the device at the correct depth in the trachea, ii) time and number of attempts to achieve the correct depth, iii) participant satisfaction.

This is an unblinded, randomized, controlled, crossover (AB/BA) trial of surfactant treatment with LISA catheter with a marked tip vs. LISA catheter with an unmarked tip in a manikin simulating an extremely low birth weight infant. Participants will be level III NICU consultants and residents. Randomization will be performed using a computer-generated random assignment list. The primary outcome measure will be the positioning of the device at the correct depth in the trachea. The secondary outcome measures will be the time and number of attempts to achieve the correct depth and participant satisfaction.