Approximately 17,500 premature infants develop BPD each year in the US.  Although rare in the general population, BPD is the most common pulmonary morbidity associated with prematurity and the incidence is increasing.

There are no FDA indicated therapies that prevent BPD or are available to treat BPD symptoms.  To date, only vitamin A and caffeine prevent BPD without known significant long term adverse events.  Postnatal steroids reduce BPD, but increase the risk of cerebral palsy.^38,39 Although inhaled nitric oxide is beneficial in term infants with hypoxic respiratory failure, the majority of studies demonstrate that it does not prevent BPD in premature infants, although there was a great deal of heterogeneity in the patient populations, dose, and duration of inhaled nitric oxide. One problem with the vast majority of trials of drugs tested  to prevent BPD is that they did not establish the safety, preliminary effectiveness, PK, pharmacodynamics, or dose prior to implementation of phase III randomized, controlled trials.