La ampliación de criterios de administración de palivizumab no disminuye los ingresos por virus respiratorio sincitial

Introduction

Respiratory syncytial virus is the leading cause of hospital admission for bronchiolitis in Spain. Immunoprophylaxis with palivizumab is an effective measure in those patients who meet the criteria for its administration. The aim of our study was to evaluate whether the extension of these criteria would reduce the rate of hospitalisation for this reason.

Methods

A retrospective analytical observational case-control study was conducted in a tertiary hospital, including 338 neonates born between 2017 and 2022. The “controls” arm included patients with criteria for palivizumab administration according to the Spanish Society of Neonatology indications, and the “cases" arm included preterm patients up to 35 weeks of gestational age excluded from these criteria. The main variables assessed were the occurrence of respiratory syncytial virus bronchiolitis and the need for admission in both groups.

Results

The incidence of RSV bronchiolitis and admission to the hospital ward in the case group was similar to that found in our palivizumab-immunised population (control group).

Statistically significant differences were only found for the presence of school-aged siblings as a risk factor for the development of bronchiolitis.

Conclusions

An extension of the criteria for palivizumab administration to all preterm infants younger than 35 weeks would lead to increased costs without a reduction in infection rates and respiratory syncytial virus admissions.