Home oxygen use unrelated to readmission risk in preemies with bronchopulmonary dysplasia

Home use of oxygen does not appear to amplify the risk of readmission for preterm infants with bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), a recent study has shown.

The study included 3,574 preterm infants born <32 weeks of gestation. All participants had been diagnosed with BPD, and those with anomalies or tracheostomies were excluded. The primary outcome of interest was readmission by 1 year of corrected age. Readmission duration and mortality were set as secondary outcomes.

More than half of the participants were discharged with home oxygen and 34 percent (n=1,223) needed to be readmitted to a hospital by 1 year of corrected age. Factors associated with readmission included earlier gestational age, more ventilator days, BPD severity, patent ductus arteriosus ligation and having a gastrostomy tube, among others.

Multivariable analysis found that while home oxygen use was a potential risk factor for readmission, it failed to reach statistical significance (odds ratio [OR], 1.2, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.98–1.56; p=0.074). It was also unrelated to the secondary outcome of total readmission days (OR, 1.0, 95 percent CI, 0.82–1.18; p=0.871).

“Despite significant variation across children’s hospitals in the use of home oxygen, we found no association between center use of home oxygen and readmission risk; however, readmissions for infants discharged with home oxygen were more likely to be coded as BPD without differences in other respiratory, infectious or cardiovascular codes,” researchers said.