All issues > Volume 29(7); 1986

Original Article

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1986;29(7):758-764. Published online July 31, 1986.

Clinical Status of Apnea in Prematurity.

Soon Hee Kim¹, Chang Soo Ra¹, Keun Lee¹

¹Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, Ewha Womans University Seoul, Korea

Abstract

Apnea is defined as cessation of respiration for longer than 10 〜20sec with or without bradycardia or cyanosis. It is more frequent in premature than full-term infants. The medical records of 96 premature infants of gestational age below 36 weeks who were hospitalized at Nursery of Ewha University Hospital during the period from July, 1982 to July, 1984, were analyzed. The results were as follows: 1) The dist ribution of infants with apnea by gestational age showed a peak incidence between 31 to 33 weeks(58.2%). 2) The onset of apnea was within the two days of life in the majority(87.8%). 3) As for the morbidities associated with apnea, hyaline membrane disease, sepsis, acidosis, patent ductus arteriosus, hypogycemia, hyponatremia, anemia, and intracranial hemorrhage were observed. 4) In outcome, 64.3% of causes improved, 18.4% not improved, and 17.3% expired. 5) In cases of idiopathic apnea, the onset was within two days after birth(95%), and 85.7% improved with no mortality.

Keywords :Apnea prematurity idiopathic apnea.