Pre-term infants lacking surfactant often require mechanical ventilation, but the consequent barotrauma and volutrauma may contribute to chronic lung disease, or bronchopulmonary dysplasia. Consequently high frequency oscillatory ventilation (HFOV) has been tried, but results from trials are mixed. A new systematic review of 3229 preterm newborns of less than 35 weeks’ gestation in 10 randomised trials fails to show a benefit of HFOV over conventional ventilation.
Elective high-frequency oscillatory versus conventional ventilation in preterm infants: a systematic review and meta-analysis of individual patients’ data
The Lancet, Volume 375, Issue 9731, Pages 2082 – 2091, 12 June 201o