A gentler kind of oxygen therapy should be tried out first on pre mature babies, before putting them on the ventilators. A new study published online in The New England Journal of Medicine, claims that putting pre mature babies on ventilators can lead to serious complications, such as lung injuries and infections, thus a milder therapy should be tried out first.

To counter the situation, a study was launched by the pediatricians on 1,316 infants. The study was conducted to test whether the babies could thrive on CPAP approach.

CPAP is the approach for continuous positive airway pressure. The babies in this approach get oxygen through prongs placed in their nose.

The doctors experimented by randomly assigning half of babies to go automatically on a ventilator and the rest to try the CPAP first.

It was observed that even though the babies stared on CPAP, but eventually needed the ventilator. However, the implementation of CPAP allowed 17% of babies to avoid the ventilator.

Further the babies who had started on CPAP did better in many ways as they were less likely in the need of steroids.

The study also highlighted that the premature babies, those who were born at 24 and 25 weeks were less likely to die, if they received the CPAP.

Further the babies would be evaluated by the doctors when they are 18 to 22 months old.

It is however, believed that the results should change medical practice around the country and be a major breakthrough.