Covariation of changing patent ductus arteriosus management and preterm infant outcomes in Pediatrix neonatal intensive care units.

To test the hypothesis that NICU-specific preterm infant outcomes co-vary with changes in local patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) management. This retrospective multicenter study examined NICU-specific aggregated data for infants born 400–1499 g (VLBW) in the Pediatrix Clinical Data Warehouse. For each NICU and each year 2006–2016 we calculated proportion of infants receiving cyclooxygenase inhibitor (COXI) and/or PDA ligation and determined NICU-specific changes in these therapies between consecutive years. We examined relationships between NICU-specific changes in COXI/ligation and concurrent changes in local adjusted in-hospital outcomes. In 5678 observations of change at 259 NICUs summarizing 78,105 infants, between-year decreases in NICU-specific proportion treated with COXI/ligation were associated with concurrent increases in local mortality and decreases in BPD among infants 400–749 g, and with decreased pulmonary hemorrhage in larger infants. NICU-specific adjusted mortality, BPD, and pulmonary hemorrhage rates co-vary with changes in local COXI/ligation rates in some VLBW infant subgroups.