Neonatal Pulse Oximetry Screening for Congenital Heart Disease

Background: Lower respiratory tract infections, sepsis, and congenital heart disease are still the main causes of newborn death, but most of these issues are curable with early detection and treatment. It has been established that pulse oximetry screening (POS) is a non-invasive investigation that can identify 50–70% of congenital heart defects (CHDs) that have not been identified before. The aim of this study is to count the number of participants with congenital heart disease who were found through early screening using pulse oximetry. Methods: A prospective study was conducted on newborns patients with congenital heart disease who admitted to the well-baby nursery and neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of implementation was performed at 2 tertiaries hospitals, (Dubai hospital in United Arab Emirates and Benha university hospital in Egypt) on all deliveries born from June 2014 through December 2016. Results: there were 41 patients had pulse oximetry≤90 (27.7%), 73 patients had pulse oximetry≤92 (49.3%) and 114 patients had pulse oximetry≤95 (77.0%). Also, the initial pulse oximetry different was ranged (3.00-6.00) with mean (3.88±1.02) and the second pulse oximetry different was ranged (2.00-7.00) with mean (4.01±1.22). Conclusion: Even in the first hour of life, oxygen saturations were found to be abnormal in the majority of CCHD patients. The proportions of anomalous results were highest with the highest oxygen saturation threshold (95%).