Yeungnam Univ J Med.  2014 Dec;31(2):89-93. 10.12701/yujm.2014.31.2.89.

Clinical courses and diagnoses of neonates who are transferred due to mild respiratory distress soon after birth in a university hospital

• Seo JH
• Lee KH
• Lee ES

• KMID: 1909813
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.12701/yujm.2014.31.2.89

Abstract

BACKGROUND
This study was conducted to investigate the epidemiological features, clinical courses, and diagnoses of neonates who are transferred to neonatal intensive care unit of Yeungnam University Hospital due to tachypnea soon after birth.
METHODS
Based on medical records, we performed a retrospective study of neonatal intensive care unit admissions due to tachypnea from January 2010 to December 2013.
RESULTS
A total of 311 neonates were included in this study. The patient characteristics showed male predominance at 2.65:1. Among the 311 neonates with tachypnea, 127 (40.8%) neonates needed oxygen supply, and 54 (17.4%) neonates needed assisted mechanical ventilation. Transient tachypnea of the newborns (TTN) (158, 50.8%) showed the highest incidence, followed by pneumonia (63, 20.3%), extrapulmonary infection (37, 11.9%), respiratory distress syndrome (21, 6.8%), air leak (16, 5.1%), meconium aspiration syndrome (12, 3.9%), congenital heart disease (5, 1.6%), metabolic acidosis (3, 1%), primary pulmonary hypertension of newborns (2, 0.6%) and anemia (2, 0.6%).
CONCLUSION
Although the neonates with tachypnea showed no other respiratory distress symptom, clinicians should be aware of the possibility of other pulmonary diseases as well as TTN and their extra-pulmonary causes. If tachypnea does not improve within a few hours, the clinician should consider further evaluation and management as soon as possible.

Keyword

Tachypnea; Newborn; Diagnosis

MeSH Terms

Acidosis
Anemia
Diagnosis*
Heart Defects, Congenital
Humans
Hypertension, Pulmonary
Incidence
Infant, Newborn*
Intensive Care, Neonatal
Lung Diseases
Male
Meconium Aspiration Syndrome
Medical Records
Oxygen
Parturition*
Pneumonia
Respiration, Artificial
Retrospective Studies
Tachypnea
Transient Tachypnea of the Newborn
Oxygen