Surfactant therapy for acute respiratory failure in children: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background Exogenous surfactant is used to treat acute respiratory failure in children, although the benefits and harms in this setting are not clear. The objective of this systematic review was to assess the effect of exogenous pulmonary surfactant on all-cause mortality in children mechanically ventilated for acute respiratory failure. Methods: We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL and Ovid Healthstar, bibliographies of included trials and review articles, conference proceedings and trial registries. We included prospective, randomized, controlled trials of pulmonary surfactant that enrolled intubated and mechanically ventilated children with acute respiratory failure. We excluded trials that exclusively enrolled neonates or patients with asthma. Two reviewers independently rated trials for inclusion, extracted data and assessed methodologic quality. We quantitatively pooled the results of trials where suitable using a random effects model. Results: Six trials randomizing 314 patients were included. Surfactant reduced mortality (Relative Risk (RR) 0.7, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) 0.4 to 0.97, p = 0.04), was associated with increased ventilator-free days (weighted mean difference 2.5 days 95% CI 0.3 to 4.6 days, p = 0.02) and reduced duration of ventilation (weighted mean difference 2.3 days, 95% CI 0.1 to 4.4 days, p = 0.04). Conclusions: Surfactant decreased mortality, was associated with more ventilator free days and reduced duration of ventilation. No serious adverse events were reported.