Physiological Monitoring in the Ventilated Neonate: A Rationale

This paper concerns physiological monitoring of newborn babies needing mechanical ventilation for respiratory distress. Technologies for monitoring and ventilation continue to evolve and choices must be made based on technical and clinical performance as well as on safety and cost. We describe a preliminary approach for the rationalisation of technology selection, with emphasis on sensors and instruments used for measurement. The most important variables to be measured are blood gases and pH, blood pressure and heart rate, compliance, airways resistance, work of breathing, and the ventilator control variables based on flow and pressure. We then describe the use of a decision tree approach to technology selection, with the aim of providing a tool for use in different clinical settings.