Resource distribution in neonatology: beyond the Pareto principle

Antenatal Late Preterm Steroids: The Evolution of the ALPS Trial

The Antenatal Late Preterm Steroids (ALPS) trial was designed to address respiratory morbidity common in infants born late preterm. The study was published in April, 2016 and, shortly thereafter, changed clinical practice in obstetrics in the United States. The following chapter describes the ALPS trial study design in detail, including the background leading to the trial, the study outcomes, and the initial findings of the long-term follow-up study. The ALPS story would not be complete without Elizabeth Thom, PhD, who died before her time. Her brilliance largely contributed to the design of the ALPS trial.

Economic considerations at the threshold of viability

Neonatal intensive care for infants born at 22-24 weeks has become more prevalent in the past three decades, but outcomes remain highly variable between centers, in part due to different approaches in management. With this increased frequency of intervention, there has been concern for a concurrent increase in costs of care for survivors. This article reviews the direct medical, direct non-medical, and indirect costs of care for periviable infants and their families, as well as the current limitations of published data. In addition, we highlight the cost-effectiveness of neonatal intensive care and various therapies offered to extremely preterm infants, while also considering the ethical dilemmas inherently tied to periviable decision-making. Strategies to improve the gaps in knowledge on the economic impact of the smallest infants are discussed.

Trends in long-stay admissions to a UK paediatric intensive care unit

OBJECTIVE

Prolonged admission to a paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) consumes significant healthcare resource. An increase in the number of long-stay admissions and bed utilisation has been reported elsewhere in the world but not in the UK. If an increasing trend of long-stay admissions is evident, this may have significant implications for provision of paediatric intensive care in the future.

DESIGN/SETTING/PATIENTS

We retrospectively analysed prospectively collected data from Birmingham Children's Hospital, UK, over a 20-year period from 1998 to 2017. PICU admissions, bed-days, length of stay and mortality trends were analysed and reported over four different epochs (1998-2002, 2003-2007, 2008-2012 and 2013-2017) for long-stay admissions (PICU length of stay ≥28 days) and others. Differences in patient demographics, diagnostic categorisation and hospital utilisation were also analysed.

RESULTS

In total, 24 203 admissions accounted for 131 553 bed-days over the 20-year period. 705 (2.9%) long-stay admissions accounted for 42 312 (32%) bed-days. Proportion of long-stay admissions and corresponding bed-days increased from 1.6% and 20.5% in 1998-2002 to 4.5% and 42.6%, respectively, in 2013-2017 (p<0.001). Long-stay patients had a significantly higher number of hospital admissions (median: 4 vs 2, p<0.001) per patient and overall hospital length of stay (median: 98 vs 15, p<0.001) bed-days compared with other patients. Long-stay admissions were associated with significantly higher crude mortality (23% vs 6%, p<0.001) compared with other admissions.

CONCLUSIONS

A significant increase in the proportion of prolonged PICU admissions with disproportionately high resource utilisation and mortality is evident over two decades.

A trial comparing continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) devices in preterm infants

OBJECTIVE

To test the hypothesis that infants born <30 weeks' gestation supported by Seattle-PAP will have lower rates of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) failure than infants supported with conventional, Fisher&Paykel-CPAP (FP-CPAP).

STUDY DESIGN

Randomized trial (3/2017-01/2019) at 5 NICUs. The primary outcome was CPAP failure; subgroup analyses (gestational age, receipt antenatal corticosteroids) were performed.

RESULTS

A total of 232 infants were randomized. Infants in the Seattle-PAP and FP-CPAP groups had mean gestational ages of 27.0 and 27.2 weeks, respectively. We observed no differences in rates of treatment failure between Seattle-PAP (40/112, 35.7%) and FP-CPAP (38/120, 31.7%; risk difference, 4.1%; 95% CI, -8.1-16.2; P = 0.51). Subgroup analysis indicated no differences in rates of CPAP failure. We observed no differences between the two groups in frequencies of adverse events or duration of respiratory support.

CONCLUSIONS

Among infants born <30 weeks' gestation, rates of CPAP failure did not differ between Seattle-PAP and FP-CPAP.

Cost-effectiveness of Antenatal Corticosteroid Therapy vs No Therapy in Women at Risk of Late Preterm Delivery: A Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Clinical Trial

Importance

Administration of corticosteroids to women at high risk for delivery in the late preterm period (34-36 weeks' gestation) improves short-term neonatal outcomes. The cost implications of this intervention are not known.

Objective

To compare the cost-effectiveness of treatment with antenatal corticosteroids with no treatment for women at risk for late preterm delivery.

Design, Setting, and Participants

This secondary analysis of the Antenatal Late Preterm Steroids trial, a multicenter randomized clinical trial of antenatal corticosteroids vs placebo in women at risk for late preterm delivery conducted from October 30, 2010, to February 27, 2015. took a third-party payer perspective. Maternal costs were based on Medicaid rates and included those of betamethasone, as well as the outpatient visits or inpatient stay required to administer betamethasone. All direct medical costs for newborn care were included. For infants admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit, comprehensive daily costs were stratified by the acuity of respiratory illness. For infants admitted to the regular newborn nursery, nationally representative cost estimates from the literature were used. Effectiveness was measured as the proportion of infants without the primary outcome of the study: a composite of treatment in the first 72 hours of continuous positive airway pressure or high-flow nasal cannula for 2 hours or more, supplemental oxygen with a fraction of inspired oxygen of 30% or more for 4 hours or more, and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation or mechanical ventilation. This secondary analysis was initially started in June 2016 and revision of the analysis began in May 2017.

Exposures

Betamethasone treatment.

Main Outcomes and Measures

Incremental cost-effectiveness ratio.

Results

Costs were determined for 1426 mother-infant pairs in the betamethasone group (mean [SD] maternal age, 28.6 [6.3] years; 827 [58.0%] white) and 1395 mother-infant pairs in the placebo group (mean [SD] maternal age, 27.9 [6.2] years; 794 [56.9%] white). Treatment with betamethasone was associated with a total mean (SD) woman-infant-pair cost of $4681 ($5798), which was significantly less than the mean (SD) amount of $5379 ($8422) for women and infants in the placebo group (difference, $698; 95% CI, $186-$1257; P = .02). The Antenatal Late Preterm Steroids trial determined that betamethasone use is effective: respiratory morbidity decreased by 2.9% (95% CI, -0.5% to -5.4%). Thus, the cost-effectiveness ratio was -$23 986 per case of respiratory morbidity averted. Inspection of the bootstrap replications confirmed that treatment was the dominant strategy in 5000 samples (98.8%). Sensitivity analyses showed that these results held under most assumptions.

Conclusions and Relevance

The findings suggest that antenatal betamethasone treatment is associated with a statistically significant decrease in health care costs and with improved outcomes; thus, this treatment may be an economically desirable strategy.