Trends in narcotics and sedative use during mechanical ventilation of preterm infants in Canadian neonatal intensive care units.

objectiveMechanical ventilation (MV) in preterm infants (PTI) causes discomfort. Whether it causes pain is controversial. Meta analysis reviews of published work on PTI during MV have shown no clinically significant impact of opioids on pain scales, and hence not recommended for routine use in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). Similarly regular use of sedative midazolam is also not recommended. Therefore we hypothesized a downward trend in narcotics and sedatives used in MV of PTI in NICUs. This study aimed to assess trends of sedatives and narcotics use during MV of PTI in Canadian NICUs during 2004-2009.

methodsPTI born at gestational age (GA) of <35 weeks requiring invasive MV for >24 hours were identified retrospectively from the Canadian Neonatal Network database for 2004-2009. PTI were excluded if moribund on admission, had major congenital anomalies, surgery (except laser eye surgery), necrotizing enterocolitis, chest tube or history of maternal narcotic abuse. PTI were classified according to whether they received any narcotics (morphine, fentanyl, methadone, sufentanyl, meperidine, alfentynl and codiene) or sedatives (chloral hydrate, midazolam, lorazepam, phenobarbital, pentobarbital, ketamine and propofol) for >24 consecutive hours during MV. Trends of narcotics and sedatives were assessed using the Cochrane-Armitage Trend test separately for PTI born at <29 and 29-34 weeks of GA.

resultsAmong 5 638 study subjects, 2 169 (38.5%) received narcotics and 897 (15.9%) received sedatives. The most common narcotics were morphine (62.2%) and fentanyl (63.8%) and sedatives were phenobarbital (44.9%) and chloral hydrate (44.2%). A significant decreasing trend (P<0.01) in the use of any sedatives during MV was observed in PTI <29 and 29-34 weeks of GA. However, the use of any narcotics during MV increased significantly (P=0.03) among PTI <29 weeks of GA, and no change in trend was detected for PTI born at 29-34 weeks of GA.

conclusionsThe use of sedatives during MV in PTI born at <35 weeks of GA was positively affected, however the narcotics use during MV remained constant for PTI born at 29-34 weeks, and increased in extremely low GA group (less than 29 weeks) suggesting evidence based practice change was not observed during the study period.