ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Effect of posture on oxygenation and respiratory muscle strength in convalescent infants

G Dimitriou, A Greenough, L Pink, A McGhee, A Hickey and G F Rafferty

Children Nationwide Regional Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, King's College Hospital, London, UK

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Professor Greenough, Department of Child Health, King's College Hospital, London SE5 9RS, UK;
anne.greenough{at}kcl.ac.uk

Objective: To determine if differences in respiratory muscle strength could explain any posture related effects on oxygenation in convalescent neonates.

Methods: Infants were examined in three postures: supine, supine with head up tilt of 45°, and prone. A subsequent study was performed to determine the influence of head position in the supine posture. In each posture/head position, oxygen saturation (SaO₂) was determined and respiratory muscle strength assessed by measurement of the maximum inspiratory pressure (PIMAX).

Patients: Twenty infants, median gestational age 34.5 weeks (range 25–43), and 10 infants, median gestational age 33 weeks (range 30–36), were entered into the first and second study respectively.

Results: Oxygenation was higher in the prone and supine with 45° head up tilt postures than in the supine posture (p<0.001), whereas PIMAX was higher in the supine and supine with head up tilt of 45° postures than in the prone posture (p<0.001). Head position did not influence the effect of posture on PIMAX or oxygenation.

Conclusion: Superior oxygenation in the prone posture in convalescent infants was not explained by greater respiratory muscle strength, as this was superior in the supine posture.

Keywords: posture; respiratory muscle strength; oxygenation

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

Fantoms

Martin Ward-Platt
Arch. Dis. Child. Fetal Neonatal Ed. 2002 86: F142. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Dellagrammaticas, H., Greenough, A, Dimitrou, G (2002). Effect of head up tilting on oxygenation. Arch. Dis. Child. Fetal Neonatal Ed. 87: F233-233 [Full Text]  

eLetters:

Read all eLetters

Effect of head up tilting on oxygenation

Heracles D. Dellagrammaticas

Fetal Neonatal Ed. Online, 7 Jun 2002 [Full text]

Re: Effect of head up tilting on oxygenation

Anne Greenough, et al.

Fetal Neonatal Ed. Online, 3 Jul 2002 [Full text]

Neonatal Position and Oxygenation

Girish Gupta, et al.

Fetal Neonatal Ed. Online, 7 Jan 2003 [Full text]

Re: Neonatal position and oxygenation

Gabriel Dimitriou, et al.

Fetal Neonatal Ed. Online, 28 Jan 2003 [Full text]