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Oxygen Management in Neonatal Care

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Emerging Topics and Controversies in Neonatology

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Abstract

Most very preterm infants are treated with supplemental oxygen at some point in their clinical course before discharge home. The treatment is provided according to guidelines, and titrated according to measures of oxygenation with the aim of minimising harm, but uncertainties regarding the interpretation of the evidence have resulted in wide variation in practice. Recent evidence from randomised controlled trials now shows clearly that small differences in achieved oxygen saturation influence the risk of mortality and that practice trends favouring lower oxygen saturation targets in the hope of reducing retinopathy of prematurity or chronic lung disease are probably unsafe. Further research will be required to identify the optimal target range and to show whether or not servo control will improve outcomes. Outwith clinical trials, the best current evidence is to target the SpO2 range 91–95% for very preterm infants throughout their hospitalisation.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Neonatal Unit, Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, Little France Crescent, Edinburgh, Scotland

    Ben Stenson

  2. Neonatal Medicine, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland

    Ben Stenson

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  1. Ben Stenson
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Correspondence to Ben Stenson .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health Sciences, George Davies Centre for Medicine, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK

    Elaine M. Boyle

  2. Department of Health Sciences, George Davies Centre for Medicine, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK

    Jonathan Cusack

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Stenson, B. (2020). Oxygen Management in Neonatal Care. In: Boyle, E., Cusack, J. (eds) Emerging Topics and Controversies in Neonatology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28829-7_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28829-7_13

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-28828-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-28829-7

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