Our goals were to report the
developmental outcomes of infants with tracheostomies
who were evaluated in follow-up at 18-22 months’ corrected
age, in comparison with the rest of the population of very
preterm infants, and to evaluate whether the timing of tracheostomy
is related to outcomes.
Methods
The NRN uses a predefined protocol to prospectively collect
medical and developmental follow-up data at 18-22 months’
corrected age on all infants born with birth weight of 401-
1000 g (if born before January 1, 2008) or before 27 weeks’
gestation (if born on or after January 1, 2008).13 The same
protocol is used to collect follow-up data about children of
any gestational age who are enrolled in an NRN clinical trial
requiring neurodevelopmental follow-up. In the current analyses,