Clinical Analysis Of Acute Neonatal Respiratory Failure

Objective: In order to have a better understanding of neonatal respiratory failure, we reviewed 79 cases of neonatal respiratory failure that hospitalized in NICU of the Children's Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine between January 2004 and September 2006 and made a retrospective analysis. Of the 79 cases, 55 were male and 24 were female. The age of patients ranged from 1 hour to 11 days. Forty cases were premature and the rest were term infants, with birth weight ranged from 850 to 4400 grams. The mean PaO₂/FiO₂ was 170.9±60.1mmHg. Results: For neonates with respiratory failure in our study, 63.3% were neonatal respiratory distress syndrome. The mortality was 11.4%,including 4 patients who discharged against medical advice. The average length of stay in hospital in survival infants was 15.3±7.0 days. Patients who less than 34 weeks gestational age need longer hospital stay than those who greater than 34 weeks (P<0.05). Conclusion: Neonatal respiratory failure was mainly caused by respiratory distress syndrome (RDS). The prognosis involved many factors, including gestational age, pre-existing illnesses and complications. Mechanical ventilation with lung-protection strategy and continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) were the most important treatments.