Respiratory discomfort at birth and the need for CPAP in the newborn's first hours

Abstract

Objective: To establish the neonatal factors associated with success and failure in the use of Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) in the delivery room, in neonates with respiratory distress in the first hours of life. Methods: Documentary, cross-sectional, observational and descriptive quantitative research. As inclusion criteria, newborns (NBs) with gestational age (GA) ≥ 34 weeks with respiratory distress at birth, increased work of breathing and need for oxygen therapy in the delivery room. Results: The average GA was 38 weeks the average birth weight (BW) was 3.1 kg and the average time using continuous positive airway pressure (T-CPAP) was 121.4 min. The prevalent pathologies were: respiratory distress syndrome (61.4%), meconium aspiration syndrome (19%), asphyxia (11.1%) and transient tachypnea of ​​the newborn. Results show that increasing gestational age increased the probability of success by 1.4 times in relation to the probability of needing an ICU. Birth weight and T-CPAP were not factors that contributed to the probability of success or the need for ICU. Conclusion: Neonatal CPAP was well established with a success rate of 85.6%, with two hours of these devices in the delivery room, an important time to promote the reestablishment of respiratory condition early and avoid admission to the ICU.