Prospective Study for the Use of Palivizumab (Synagis®) in High-risk Children in Germany

Each participant included in this study was observed during his/her palivizumab prophylaxis during the prevailing RSV season. According to the requirements for non-interventional or observational studies, no diagnostic or monitoring procedures were applied to the participants included in the study other than those which would ordinarily be applied in the course of the individual therapeutic strategy. Only data which were part of routine medical care were collected.

Data collection was conducted initially in season 2002/2003 using paper-based case report forms (CRFs); beginning in season 2008/2009 a protected internet-based data entry platform was used. Both the paper-based CRFs and the electronic system were subject to changes during the whole time of the registry.

Data collection for registry seasons 2002/2003 - 2006/2007 was conducted by use of paper-based CRFs and hospitalization forms. Corresponding results were published in 2011 and are hence depicted together and reported here as a separate reporting group.

Registry seasons 2007/2008 and 2008/2009 were considered transitional years in the process of switching the type of data collection to an electronic CRF (eCRF) system. Although data collection of registry 2007/2008 was still paper-based, it was not included in the original publication and hence, results are reported separately. In season 2008/2009 the mode of data collection was switched from paper-based CRFs to an eCRF system, however, several physicians still used the paper-based CRFs for documentation. In order to use all documentations and lose as few data as possible, results for 2008/2009 are based on a combination of paper-based CRF and eCRF data. Hence, it was decided to keep the results for 08/09 separate from the depiction of the homogenous, eCRF-based results of the following seasons.

Data collection for registry 09/10 - 15/16 was implemented by an eCRF system. Corresponding results are therefore depicted together in one reporting group.

Inclusion criteria

• Children born at 35 weeks of gestation or less and less than 6 months of age at the onset of the Respiratory syncytial virus season
• Children less than 2 years of age and requiring treatment for bronchopulmonary dysplasia within the last 6 months.
• Children less than 2 years of age and with hemodynamically significant congenital heart disease.

Exclusion criteria

• Children with known hypersensitivity to palivizumab or any component of the formulation, or other humanized monoclonal antibodies