European Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine

Introduction: Apnea is defined as cessation of breathing for longer than 20 sec, or for shorter duration in presence of bradycardia or change in skin colour (pallor or cyanosis) in a neonate having gestational age <37 weeks is a consequence of physiological immaturity of centres that control breathing .Significant bradycardia has been defined as heart rate <80 bpm and significant desaturation defined as oxygen saturation <80-85%. Aims: To study the efficacy of caffeine versus Aminophylline in management of Apnoea of Prematurity. Materials and Methods:The present study was a Randomised Control study. This Study was conducted from February 2018 to July 2019 at Neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) U.P.U.M.S., Saifai, Etawah. Total 230 patients were included in this study. Result: Caffeine was more effective in preventing Apneic episodes over 4-7 days  as compared to aminophylline (p-value 0.013), but both the groups had  almost equal effectivity in preventing apneic episodes over 8-14 days(p-value0.8). Also Mean Apnea Rate was less in Caffeine group than Aminophylline group (p-value-0.013) but Isolated desaturations over 8-14 days were comparable in both groups (p-value-0.8) which showed both had almost similar efficacy in treating Apnea of prematurity. Conclusion: we concluded that  caffeine is more effective than aminophylline in reducing apneas in neonates with apnea of prematurity.