Tin Win
The James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough, UK.
Biol Neonate. 2004;85(4):319-25. doi: 10.1159/000078173. Epub 2004 Jun 8.
Oxygen is the most commonly used 'drug' in neonatal units as an integral part of respiratory support. It has also been known for half of the century that it is easy to damage the eyes of preterm infants by giving too much oxygen especially in the first few weeks of life. Despite this knowledge there is still a wide variation in approaches to oxygen monitoring within neonatal units. A randomized controlled trial conducted more than 50 years ago first made clinicians aware of 'oxygen toxicity' in preterm infants, but no other controlled trial has ever been conducted since to clarify how much oxygen infants really need, or what oxygen saturation level is optimal in caring these preterm babies. Perhaps time has come for clinicians to resolve this 'uncertainty' by well-designed randomized trials.
氧气是新生儿病房最常用的“药物”，是呼吸支持不可或缺的一部分。半个世纪以来，人们也都知道，给早产儿过多吸氧容易损害其眼睛，尤其是在出生后的头几周。尽管有这些认识，但新生儿病房在氧气监测方法上仍存在很大差异。50多年前进行的一项随机对照试验首次让临床医生意识到早产儿存在“氧中毒”问题，但此后再没有进行过其他对照试验来阐明婴儿真正需要多少氧气，或者在护理这些早产儿时最佳的血氧饱和度水平是多少。或许现在临床医生应该通过精心设计的随机试验来解决这个“不确定性”问题了。
