Wafting does work
- 1NETS, Sydney, Australia; daviespatrick{at}hotmail.com
- 2Department of Oncology, Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, UK
- 3Department of Paediatric Allergy, St Mary’s Hospital, London, UK
- 4Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Rosie Maternity Hospital, Cambridge, UK
We were interested to see the article “Oxygen administration in infants”,1 and eLetter responses. The original article and eLetters were unsure of the efficacy of “non-contact” oxygen delivery or “wafting” as it is more commonly known. Our study “The efficacy of noncontact oxygen delivery methods”,2 demonstrated how effective wafting oxygen can be. We found that an area of 34cm by 37cm obtained a concentration of >30% when oxygen is delivered by face mask at 10 l /minute. Although this is not a substitution for the more reliable methods of administration as detailed by Drs Frey and Shann, in the short term it can be used with confidence.
We caution against holding a self inflating resuscitation bag over an infant’s airway (without manipulation of the bag itself), as it delivers a negligible amount of oxygen. It is much more efficient to use the oxygen tubing without any attachments.
