الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Background: Apnea is defined as cessation of respiration for more than 20 seconds or cessation of respiration of any duration accompanied by bradycardia (HR <100 beat /min) and/or cyanosis (Aggarwal et al., 2001). Caffeine is the most commonly used medication for treatment of apnea of prematurity. Its effect has been well established in reducing the frequency of apnea, intermittent hypoxemia, and extubation failure in mechanically ventilated preterm infants (Abdel-Hady et al., 2015). Early caffeine use result in higher rates of neurodevelopmental outcomes. (Gupte et al., 2015) Aim of the work: To evaluate which strategy of caffeine therapy either prophylactic or therapeutic, will be associated with better neuro-developmental outcome in preterm infants. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted on 30 preterm survivor children whose gestational age at birth ≤ 32 weeks gestation. They were admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of Children Hospital, Mansoura University and received caffeine either as prophylactic or therapeutic, at the period between 2015 and 2017 at the age of 18 to 36 months. We used The Bayley scales (Bayley, 2006) for assessment the neurodevelopmental outcome of them. Results: Our study showed that prophylactic group showed higher scores of the Bayley III Scales than therapeutic one. Conclusion: Based on the results of the current study, Prophylactic caffeine therapy may have a positive impact on neurodevelopmental outcome of preterm infants in the form of cognition, language, motor functions shown by Bayley III scales.