Egbert Herting

Less Invasive Surfactant Administration (LISA) for the Prevention of Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia

Less invasive surfactant administration (LISA) is a promising new way of surfactant administration to spontaneously breathing infants. For LISA, the vocal cords are visualized by direct laryngoscopy. A thin catheter is introduced into the trachea and surfactant is instilled while the infant is breathing spontaneously. The main effects of LISA are the avoidance of mechanical ventilation and delayed intubation of infants who finally need mechanical ventilation. Data of observational and randomized controlled trials are encouraging with regard to the potential of the method to reduce bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), but large-scale trials and long-term outcome data are lacking.