Abstract:Objective To investigate the effect of less invasive surfactant administration (LISA) on developmental outcomes in preterm infants with neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (NRDS).Methods The clinical data of 67 children with NRDS admitted to our hospital from December 2019 to May 2021 were retrospectively analyzed. Thirty of them were treated with LISA (referred to as study group), while 37 infants were treated with the Intubation-Surfactant-Extubation (INSURE) procedure (referred to as control group). All were followed up to the gestationally corrected age of 12 months. The incidence of adverse reactions during the administration of pulmonary surfactant (PS) in the two groups was observed. The ventilation, oxygen inhalation and re-administration of PS in the two groups were analyzed. The changes of blood gas indexes in the two groups before and after treatment, the incidence of complications, and the physical development, hearing, vision and nervous system development of infants were compared between the two groups during the follow-up period.Results There was no significant difference in the incidence of bradykinesia, apnea, decrease in transcutaneous oxygen saturation, drug regurgitation, requirement for mechanical ventilation within 72 h, re-administration of PS, retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH), hearing loss and vision loss, or the total time of oxygen inhalation and invasive ventilation between the two groups during the treatment (P > 0.05). The incidence of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) in the study group was lower than that in the control group (P < 0.05). The differences of blood partial pressure of oxygen (PaO2), partial pressure of carbon dioxide (PaCO2), and PaO2/inhaled oxygen concentration (FiO2) before and after treatment were comparable between the two groups (P > 0.05). There were statistically significant differences in the incidence of extrauterine growth restriction (EUGR) in terms of the weight, head circumference and height between the two groups at discharge, and at the gestationally corrected age of 6 and 12 months (P < 0.05). The incidence of EUGR at the gestationally corrected age of 6 and 12 months was lower than that at discharge in both groups (P < 0.05), and the incidence of EUGR at the gestationally corrected age of 12 months was even lower than that at the gestationally corrected age of 6 months in both groups (P < 0.05). The mental development index (MDI), psychomotor development index (PDI) and developmental quotient (DQ) of the study group were better than those of the control group (P < 0.05).Conclusions LISA is a safe and effective approach for PS administration to premature infants with NRDS, by reducing the risk of BPD and improving the development of the nervous system.