Resuscitation of newborn premature infants; a clinical study of the use of positive pressure respiration.

The Goddard-Bennett-Lovelace hand resuscitator was used for initiating respiration in 87 newborn infants with respiratory difficulties, during a five-month period at the Los Angeles County General Hospital. On alternate days, when the respirator was not used, 126 comparable infants received resuscitation by mouth-to-tracheal pressure and other means. Neither term infants nor previable infants benefited by use of the hand resuscitator, but premature infants weighing more than 1,000 gm. had a definite advantage, with a mortality of only 13 per cent for those treated with the resuscitator against 34 per cent among the controls. Neither roentgen nor postmortem studies of the lungs disclosed any consistent effect of any resuscitative measure employed.