In 2005, we changed our minimally invasive departmental policy for infants born before 26 weeks of gestation to a proactive approach. This included structured guidelines as well as intubation and surfactant in the delivery room, if the parents agreed. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of this change of policy.
We compared the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) scores, mortality rates and use of mechanical ventilation before (1999-2003) and after (2005-2011) the introduction of the new policy.
Twenty-two per cent of 61 infants in the before group had an ASQ z-score of