A Trial of Infant Flow Biphasic Nasal Continuous Airway Pressure (NCPAP) Versus Infant Flow NCPAP for the Facilitation of Extubation in Infants </= 1250 Grams

Chronic lung disease (CLD) remains a significant problem among low birth weight infants with a reported incidence of up to 26% in infants \< 1500 grams. Nasal continuous positive airway pressure (NCPAP) has been demonstrated to provide effective non-invasive respiratory support for preterm infants. The use of NCPAP is associated with a decreased need for mechanical ventilation and may impact on the incidence of CLD. There are two types of NCPAP now available, a Biphasic mode which allows for cycling at two different levels of positive pressure and a continuous mode which allows only for one level of positive pressure. Comparisons: Biphasic NCPAP will be compared with continuous CPAP to see which better facilitates the extubation of preterm infants who weigh \</= 1250 grams at birth. The incidence of CLD, retinopathy of prematurity, sepsis, intraventricular haemorrhage, periventricular leucomalacia and necrotizing entercolitis will also be compared between the two groups.