Endotracheal aspiration and oxygenation in resuscitation of the newborn.

THE indications for active intervention in neonatal resuscitation vary from hospital to hospital. There is little agreement as to whether the clinical control should be the immediate responsibility of the obstetrician, the paediatrician or the anaesthetist (Schmidt, McLandress and Cruickshank, 1956), and which of a large variety of methods should be used (Abramson, 1956). Most physicians now agree that the administration of oxygen takes precedence over the administration of drugs, but there is no general agreement concerning the route of administration. The shortcomings associated with the administration of oxygen by mask are now appreciated and recently the effectiveness of intragastric oxygen, first advocated by Akerren and Fiirstenburg (1950) and Waller and Morris (1953), has been questioned by Holme and Payne (1955), James et al. (1959) and Barrie (1959). Osborn (1958) has further shown that indwelling oesophageal catheters are not without their dangers, and rupture of the stomach due to overdistension has followed this method of resuscitation (Hodges, 1956).