Chest Compressions in the Delivery Room

Annually, an estimated 13-26 million newborns need respiratory support and 2-3 million newborns need extensive resuscitation, defined as chest compression and 100% oxygen with or without epinephrine in the delivery room. Despite such care, there is a high incidence of mortality and short-term neurologic morbidity. The poor prognosis associated with receiving chest compression alone or with medications in the delivery room raises questions as to whether improved cardiopulmonary resuscitation methods specifically tailored to the newborn could improve outcomes. This review discusses the current recommendations, mode of action, different compression to ventilation ratio, continuous chest compression with asynchronous ventilations, chest compression and sustained inflation optimal depth, and oxygen concentration during cardiopulmonary resuscitation.