Optimising Ventilation in Preterms With Closed-loop Oxygen Control

This will be a randomised controlled trial. The investigators aim to recruit a minimum of seventy premature ventilated infants born at less than 31 weeks gestation. Participants will be randomised to either closed-loop automated oxygen control or manually controlled oxygen from recruitment to successful extubation. The investigators will also record basic epidemiologic parameters and associated comorbidities that may impact on the duration of mechanical ventilation. Infants with known congenital anomalies will be excluded from the study. Informed written consent will be requested from the parents or legal guardians of the infants and the attending Neonatal Consultant will be requested to assent to the study. Eligible infants whose parents consent to the study will be enrolled within 48 hours of initiation of mechanical ventilation. Randomisation will be performed using an online randomisation generator. Patients will be ventilated using SLE6000 ventilators. Ventilation settings will be manually adjusted by the clinical team as per unit's protocol. The intervention group, in addition to standard care will be also connected to the OxyGenie closed-loop oxygen saturation monitoring software (SLE). This software uses oxygen saturations from the SpO2 probe attached to the neonate, fed into an algorithm, to automatically adjust the percentage of inspired oxygen to maintain oxygen saturations within the target range. Manual adjustments including the percentage of FiO2 will be allowed at any point during the study if deemed appropriate by the clinical team. The nurse-to-patient ratio will be according to the unit's protocol that is determined on the patient's acuity. Patients will be studied from enrolment until successful extubation. If an infant fails extubation and requires reintubation within 48 hours, he will be studied in his initial arm if less than 28 days old. Therefore, for those infants randomised at the intervention group CLAC will resume. Preterm infants that remain ventilated beyond day 28 of life will continue at their study arm (closed-loop automated oxygen control or manual oxygen control) till their first extubation attempt.