Survey of delivery room resuscitation practices at tertiary perinatal centers in Japan

The quest for optimum oxygenation during newborn delivery room resuscitation: Is it the baby or is it us?

Achieving "normal oxygenation" in sick newborn infants requiring resuscitation is one of the most difficult and incompletely informed practices in neonatal care. Suboptimal oxygenation, whether too little or too much, has profound repercussions, including death. In the last two decades, clinicians have lost equipoise for the use of higher oxygen strategies due to concerns of hyperoxia but emerging evidence suggests that lower oxygen strategies may also be as detrimental, especially in infants with pulmonary pathologies such as those born at the cusp of viability. Practice at the coalface using rapidly evolving recommendations has also uncovered continuing complexities in the quest to achieve optimum oxygenation during the first critical minutes of life. There are adjustable factors, such as the practical impediments to acquiring knowledge, equipment and expertise as well as unadjustable factors, such as inherent infant pathology, that necessitates agile clinical manipulation to "first do no harm". This review will address the deficiencies in knowledge that currently impede our quest to determine the best and safest means to deliver oxygen to sick infants during the first critical minutes of life and suggest practical solutions for current practice while awaiting definitive evidence from large scale, well defined, randomized controlled studies.

Delivery of positive end-expiratory pressure to preterm lambs using common resuscitation devices

BACKGROUND

In neonatal resuscitation, a ventilation device providing positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) is recommended. There is limited information about PEEP delivery in vivo, using different models of self-inflating bag (SIB) at different inflation rates and PEEP settings.

METHODS

We compared PEEP delivery to intubated preterm lambs using four commonly available models of paired SIBs and PEEP valves, with a T-piece, with gas flow of 8 L/min. Peak inspiratory pressure inflations of 30 cmH₂O, combined with set PEEP of 5, 7 and 10 cmH₂O, were delivered at rates of 20, 40 and 60/min. These combinations were repeated without gas flow. We measured mean PEEP, maximum and minimum PEEP, and its difference (PEEP reduction).

RESULTS

A total of 3288 inflations were analysed. The mean PEEP delivered by all SIBs was lower than set PEEP (P<0.001), although some differences were <0.5 cmH₂O. In 55% of combinations, the presence of gas flow resulted in increased PEEP delivery (range difference 0.3-2 cmH₂O). The mean PEEP was closer to set PEEP with faster inflation rates and higher set PEEPs. The mean (SD) PEEP reduction was 3.9 (1.6), 8.2 (1.8), 2 (0.6) and 1.1 (0.6) cmH₂O with the four SIBs, whereas it was 0.5 (0.2) cmH₂O with the T-piece.

CONCLUSIONS

PEEP delivery with SIBs depends on the set PEEP, inflation rate, device model and gas flow. At recommended inflation rates of 60/min, some devices can deliver PEEP close to the set level, although the reduction in PEEP makes some SIBs potentially less effective for lung recruitment than a T-piece.

Survey of neonatal resuscitation practices showed post-training improvements but need to reinforce preterm management, monitoring and adrenaline use

AIM

Neonatal resuscitation surveys have showed practice variations between countries, centres and levels of care. We evaluated delivery room practices after a nationwide neonatal resuscitation training programme focused on nontertiary centres.

METHODS

A 2012 survey sent to all Spanish hospitals handling deliveries covered staff availability and training, equipment and practices in the delivery room and during transfers to neonatal intensive care units. The results from 98 centres that had completed a previous survey in 2007 were analysed by levels of care. Pearson's chi-square test was used to compare the proportions.

RESULTS

The following had significantly improved in 2012 compared to 2007: the availability of T-piece resuscitators (71.4% vs. 41.8%), plastic wraps (69.4% vs. 31.6%), gas blenders (79.6% vs. 40.8%), pulse oximetry (92.9% vs. 61.2%), use of continuous positive airway pressure (82.7% vs. 43.9%) (all p < 0.01), the availability of instructors (55.6% vs. 83.3%, p < 0.05) and neonatal resuscitation courses (40.8% vs. 79.6%, p < 0.05) in nontertiary centres. In 2012, the use of exhaled carbon dioxide detectors was <7% and endotracheal administration of adrenaline was >90%.

CONCLUSION

Neonatal resuscitation equipment and practices improved over time, but several aspects needed to be reinforced in training programmes, namely preterm infants' management, monitoring and adrenaline administration.

Oxygen delivery using neonatal self-inflating bags without reservoirs

BACKGROUND

Guidelines recommend avoiding excessive oxygen during neonatal resuscitation. Recent studies have suggested that oxygen titration can be achieved using a self-inflating bag, but data on the effectiveness of resuscitators used in neonatal ventilation are scarce, The aim of this study was therefore to determine the amount of oxygen delivered using several brands of neonatal self-inflating resuscitation bags without reservoirs under different conditions with regard to oxygen flow rate, ventilation rate (VR), peak inspiratory pressure (PIP) range, and test lung compliance.

METHODS

Oxygen concentration was measured under a variety of conditions. Combinations of oxygen flow rate (10, 5.0, 3.0 and 1.0 L/min), VR (40, 60 inflations/min), PIP range (20-25 cmH₂ O, 35-40 cmH₂ O), and test lung compliance (0.6, 1.0, 3.0, and 5.0 mL/cmH₂ O) were examined using six kinds of self-inflating bag.

RESULTS

Delivered oxygen concentration varied widely (30.1-96.7%) and had a significant positive correlation with gas flow rate in all of the bags. Delivered oxygen concentration was also negatively correlated with PIP in all of the bags and with VR in some of them. Test lung compliance did not affect delivered oxygen concentration.

CONCLUSION

The use of neonatal resuscitation self-inflating bags without reservoirs resulted in different delivered oxygen concentrations depending on gas flow rate, VR, PIP, and manufacturer, but not on lung compliance. This suggests that targeted oxygen concentrations could be delivered, even in lungs with decreased compliance, during resuscitation.