Sunday, November 6, 2011

Newborn Resuscitation (PART 1)

 INTRODUCTION :
Any newborn who does not estabilshment spontaneous respiration should be assisted immediately or hypoxia and acidosis will ensue. About 35% of all death during the first year of life occur within the first 24 hours and half of these are related to anoxia and pulmonary pathology(3). 


Cardiopulmonary resuscitation is concerned with restoration of pulmonary,cardiovascular and neurologic function. Firstly it consist of artificial respiration and circulation by whatever means is immediately available to prevent clinical death from progressing to biological death.(4)
Cardiopulmonary  function can be restored more readily in children than in the adult. If the heart arrest before the moment of delivery cardiac massage probably better avoided since neural damage may well occur in the unknown interval elapsing before the circulation can be restarted.(2)


In addition resuscitation may actually be started before birth for the anesthetist can do much to mitigate or avoid the intrapartum asphyxia which plays a large part in many cases of depression and death of the newborn(Buttler 1963) (e.g.adequate preoperative transfusion,avoidance hypoxia at all time provision with short induction delivery interval).(2)

Diabetic mothers and premature babies prone to have hyaline membrane disease or respiratory distress syndrome (RDS),it responsible for some 30% of neonatal fatalities in certain centers(Brown 1959) (2)


FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO NEONATAL RESPIRATORY DEPRESSION(2):
These may be broadly devided into two categories (Cook 1958)

1. Failure in function of the central nervous mechanism 
    much often due typoxia or drug depression.
2. Failure in response of the peripheral respiratory 
    structure.


Further breakdown reveals the common predisposing factors in neonatal asphyxia each leading ultimately to one or other of the two main causes of depression.

a.Developmental :
   i.hypoplasia of the lungs,choanal atressia etc.
  ii.other fetal abnormalities
iii.prematurity
iv.post maturity


b. Maternal causes :
i  diabetes                                 v   prolapsed cord
ii  toxaemia                               vi  cord compression
iii hypertension                         vii  placental separation
iv hypotension or hypoxia         viii hypertonic uterus


c. Trauma to fetus at birth :
i   long labor                              iv instrumental delivery
ii  precipitate labor                    v breech delivery
iii disproportion


d. Drugs : Analgesia/anesthesia
e. Maternal hyperventilation during anesthesia
f. i Airway obstruction due to mucus, meconium etc.
  ii Respiratory distress syndrome (hyaline membrane 
    disease)


HAZARDS OF SPECIAL PEDIATRIC SIGNIFICANCE.( 4)
Anesthesiologist should be constantly be aware that factors which may insignificant in the adult may be life threatening in small children.

At anytime the upper airway may become obstructed by :
1.Small amount of mucus
2.Hypertrophie adenoid tissue
3.The relative large tongue,ascociated with:
   a.Flaccidity resultant upon unconciousness.
   b.In advertent displacement of submental soft tissue and 
      tongue by anesthesiologist's fingers.
   c.Inadequate extension or over extension in infant.
   d.Inadequate elevation of jaw.
   e.Premature removal of artificial airway.

4.Regurgitation is a common occurence because of 
   frequency of feedings.

5.The infant stomach is readily inflated by:
      a. Too high inflation pressure 
      b. Partial obstruction of airway.

Remember,infants are primary nose breather,if the nasal airway is inadequate an oral airway should be inserted.(3)
In the infants/neonates the upper airway predispossed to obstruct due to narrow passage of the nose,glottis,trachea and the presence of lymphoid tissue (3)
When there is airway obstruction,substernal,suprasternal and intercostal retraction are more marked both in older children and when dyspnoe is severe.
In the very young child these signs must be looked for very carefully if obstruction is to be recognized early.(3)                                                    
Infant and children require larger amount of oxygen due to an increased metabolic rate.


EVALUATION:(1)
A. Fetal monitoring
    1.Electronic fetal monitoring of both fetal heart rate and 
       intra uterine pressure provides information valuable to 
       predicting which infants will be depressed at birth.

   2.Type II or late deceleration patterns of fetal heart rate 
      are ascociated with fetal hypoxia and may respond to a 
      change of maternal position or to the administration of 
      fluids and oxygen.
      At delivery infants who have had persistent type II 
      decelaration tend to be depressed.

   3.Other ominous fetal heart rate patterns such as 
      fixed,non varrying bradycardia or lost of baselin 
      variability (in tha absence of atropine or diazepam given 
      to the mother) are also ascociated with the births of 
      depressed infants.(1).


B.NEWBORN  ASSESSMENT :
   Assessment depends on the rapid evaluation of a few 
   fundamental sign of normal or depressed tissue oxygen and 
   this should be carried out as soon as possible after 
   delivery.

1. Depression in the newborn is usually due to one of three 
    factors :
             -uteroplacental insufficiency
             -maternal medicales
             -neonatal disease

   The infants should be assessed from the view points of :
   a. Respiratory activity : Ventilation may be depressed 
      centrally from maternal drugs(eg.narcotic),severe 
      acidosis or infections.
      May also be affected by alveolar collapse as in 
      RDS,blockage of air passages with meconium or by 
      aspiration of blood. Finally,mechanical interference with 
      breathing maybe caused by diaphragmatic hernia or 
      pneumothorax.     


  b Cardiac output may be impaired by hemorrhage,hypoxia 
      acidosis or congenital cardiac anomalies.


2 Integrity of the newborn has claissically been assessed 
   using the Apgarscore Apgar scoring methode is numerical 
   index of the aviability of a newborn at 1 and 5 minutes 
   after completion of childbirth, Two points are alloted for 
   each of five clinical signs (a maximum score being 10) and 
   assessment is made at 1 and 5 minutes after birth.

   The signs evaluated are :
   A = Appearance : Is the infant pink or blue ?
         Two points are alloted for a totally pink infants.One 
         point is given to the infant with acro cyanosis and no 
         points are given to the cyanotic infants.

   P =  Pulse             
         Two points are given for a heart rate greater than 100,      
         One point for heart rate less than 100. If there is no 
         spontaneous heart activity,no point are scored.
         This is the most important single sign in assessment and 
         resuscitation (Brown 1954) emphasized this pointing 
         out that although the newborn are tolerant of 
         hypoxia,tolerance of ischemia is no better than in 
         adult.Severe hypoxia may be readily treated,but the 
         presence of circulation failure at once makes the 
         outcome doubtful.

   G= Grimace of reflex irritability :
        Two points are given for a vigorous cry in response to 
        oral suctioning. One point is given for a weak cry or 
        some motion, and no points are scored if response is 
        totally lacking.   
        This often elicited by use of the sucker which may 
        produce grimacing, coughing or sneezing. 
        A widely used reflex stimulus is a slap to soles of the 
        feet which will often causes flexion withdrawal and 
        crying. 
         Failure response in the depressed infant after this 
         manouvres should not call for futher assault.

  A = Activity of muscle tone :
        The well oxygenated infant has good tone at birth. 
         Increasing asphyxia leads to a progressive loss of tone 
        and eventually flaccidity.
        Two points are given for good muscle tone,the infants 
        drawing himself into the flexed position. One point is 
        given when there is some flexion of extrimities but no 
        points are scored when the infant is flaccid.


   R = Respiratory effort 
        Apnoe may occur, perhaps after one or two initial gasp 
        or without any respiratory efforts being made at all.   
        Two points are given for regular respiratory efforts 
        one,one for irregular respiration and none in the 
        absence of spontaneous respiration.

A score 0 to 10 is assigned for each of these five evaluations. The neonates scoring 7 or above is considered in good conditions.                                                                                                                                                                                         
The score of 4 to 6 he is moderately depressed (requires some attention).
If the score less than 4,the neonate is considered seriously depressed, demand major resuscitative intervension (1,3).

Apgar rating at 5 minutes reflects the result of the resuscitative efforts and provides an index of the value of further efforts (3).

The non depressed infant approaches delivery with a mild respiratory and metabolic acidosis,his pH in the range of 7,25 -7.30 with PaCO2 of about 45 mmHg(3).

Following delivery all infants show a transient decrease in pH and increase base deficit, these alteration reaches a maximum at 4 minutes of life.
This mild acidosis in normal term infant does not need to be treated.

An infant with Apgar score of 7 or greater tends to correct its pH by the end of one hour, at which point the pH approaches 7.35.The PaCO2 is likely to be between 35 and 40 mmHg.

The infant with an Apgar score of 6 or less is relatively more acidotic than his counterpart with a score of 7 or more acidosis. The acidosis is both respiratory and metabolic acidosis but metabolic acidosis develops slowly during cardiac arrest and CPR in both animals and humans.

In depressed infants the pH during labor may run from 7.15 to 7,25 and the base deficit may approach 10 meq/L,the PaCO2 ranges from 40 to 55 mmHg.

In the markedly premature infant, surfactant production and even pulmonary blood flow can be reduced by acidosis (1). 
Therefore the acidosis of the depressed all premature infants is treated immediately in the delivery room. But the priority is to treat respiratory acidosis with ventilation and oxygenation and metabolic acidosis is treated when severe because hypernatremia and hyperosmolarity cause by bicarbonat natricus administration during and following CPR and ascociated with a poor outcome (Mattar et al 1974).(7)   


To Be Continued

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