STUDIES OF RESPIRATORY INSUFFICIENCY IN NEWBORN INFANTS

[摘要] Serial determinations of pH, carbon dioxide tension, carbon dioxide content and oxygen saturation of the blood were made on newborn infants and correlated with the trends of their respiratory rates.Some infants whose respiratory rates were normal from birth and some whose rates were initially high but subsequently returned to normal levels exhibited mild uncompensated respiratory acidosis for 3 or 4 hours after birth. Thereafter, acid-base balances were normal. All infants whose respiratory rates followed either of the above two trends oxygenated their blood 91% or better within a few minutes of birth.There was a marked tendency for infants whose respiratory rates increased significantly on the first day or two after birth to have a moderate to severe uncompensated respiratory acidosis which was worse at birth and sometimes persisted for several days, usually with improvement. Some of the infants whose respiratory rates increased significantly after birth had moderate to severe hypoxemia, which also was worse at birth and tended to improve with increasing age.The hypothesis was advanced that one of the basic difficulties in neonatal respiratory insufficiency was a reduction of resting tidal volume; the latter was universally associated with a significant increase in respiratory rates during the first day or two after birth and sometimes with an uncompensated respiratory acidosis and occasionally with hypoxemia.

[学科分类] 儿科学