[Resuscitation of newborn infants with room air or oxygen]

In this article we present results from the Resair 2 study in which we tested whether room air is more efficient than 100% oxygen in newborn resuscitation. Eleven participating centres in Egypt, Estonia, India, Norway, Philippines, and Spain recruited 609 infants who needed resuscitation at birth; of these, 288 were resuscitated with room air and 321 with 100% oxygen. There were no differences between the two groups with regard to outcome. One minute Apgar scores were significantly lower in the oxygen group than in the room air group. Median time to first breath was significantly delayed with 24 seconds in the oxygen group compared with the room air group. It seems that 100% oxygen depresses ventilation in newborn infants. Room air is as safe and efficient as 100% oxygen at least in most cases of newborn resuscitation. Further studies confirming these results are needed before new resuscitation routines are implemented.