Perinatal asphyxia: assessing its causal role and timing.

Perinatal asphyxia, whether prenatal, intrapartum, or neonatal is thought to be a significant contributor to newborn morbidity and mortality as well as long-term neurological deficits. Development of an intrapartum tool/test that can reliably identify and discriminate between varying degrees of fetal acidemia and suggest whether it is respiratory or metabolic in nature would be highly desirable. This article critically reviews the available experience with the currently available monitoring techniques and the significance of abnormalities of fetal and intrapartum measurements with respect to the predictive value of the observations available to the clinician.