Monitoring of the respiratory status of critically ill newborn has been a rapidly progressing field in the recent past. Despite the development of safe, simple and non invasive techniques for monitoring of the newborn with respiratory distress, the importance of close clinical monitoring is still decisively important. Non-invasive bedside monitoring such as pulse oximetry, transcutaneous blood gas monitoring and capnography have well supported clinical decisions and reduced the need for invasive arterial blood gas monitoring. Monitoring of a ventilated newborn has been revolutionized by the current generation of ventilators with pulmonary graphics. This article reviews the current available methods other than arterial blood gases for monitoring the sick newborn in the neonatal intensive care unit.
neonate, respiratory monitoring, pulse oximetry capnography
