Investigating the mask Leakage during Neonatal resuscitation

Abstract

Ventilation is essential in the context of resuscitating preterm and mature neonates. Large and variable leaks between the mask and baby’s face often occur during the ventilation of a newborn infant and might lead to inadequate and uncontrolled tidal volumes. The objective of this study was to extract the data from the neonatal air flow sensor and calculate the ventilation parameters to provide the real-time breath-by-breath feedback. Then, the task was to evaluate whether the real-time breath-by-breath visualisation of the primary ventilation parameters, which involves tidal volume and mask leak percentage, leads to improved ventilation efficiency during the simulated neonatal resuscitation performed on baby manikin. For the study, 20 participants from the Royal London Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit were enrolled. Participants achieved lower leak percentages during the “Visible screen” resuscitation condition as compared to the “Hidden screen” resuscitation phase. However, there were no statistically significant differences in the mean tidal volume and average leak percentage between the two conditions. The reason for these findings might be the small sample size, which is the study’s central limitation.