Cerebral Oximetry in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: Discussion of Two Contradicting Study Results (SafeBoosC-II, SafeBoosC-III)

Recently, the usefulness of near-infrared spectroscopy-based cerebral oximetry in extremely preterm infants to prevent death or severe brain injury was evaluated in a study called SafeBoosC-III (N = 1601). In this study, the incidence of both outcomes was similar between the cerebral oximetry and the control group. In a previous smaller study called SafeBoosC-II (N = 166), there was a borderline significant advantage for cerebral oximetry. There is therefore a highly significant (p = 0.010) difference between the two outcomes. What could be the reason for the difference? One major difference was that many centres were not familiar with cerebral oximeters in the new study compared with the old study. This could be a reason for the discrepancy. We conclude that cerebral oximetry should not be disregarded as a method of neuromonitoring in neonatology.