[Current research status of drug therapy for apnea of prematurity].

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the current status of studies on drug therapy for apnea of prematurity (AOP) in the past decade in China and abroad, and to describe the research trends in the field.

METHODS

CNKI and MEDLINE were searched with the key words "apnea of prematurity" and "treatment" for articles published in the past decade (January 2006 to December 2015). The articles were screened and the key words were extracted to establish the co-occurrence matrix. Ucinet 6.2 was used to plot the knowledge map.

RESULTS

A total of 26 Chinese key words and 20 English key words were included. Those in the center of the co-existent knowledge map of Chinses keywords were "preterm infants", "apnea", "primary apnea", "naloxone" and "aminophylline"; while "apnea", "preterm infants" and "caffeine" located in the central place of the co-existent knowledge map of English keywords.

CONCLUSIONS

Methylxanthines are still the major drugs for AOP; however, aminophylline is mainly used in China, while caffeine is mainly used in foreign countries. Other drugs such as naltrexone are also used in the clinical treatment of AOP.