To Breathe or Not to Breathe What Have We Learned about Apneic Spells and Sudden Infant Death?

"The relation of apneic spells, so commonly seen in premature infants, and sudden infant death remains speculative." So it was in 1977, so it is in 1983.A review of some of the studies in the intervening years is timely. In 1977 Shannon et al.1 reported that ventilatory responses to inspired carbon dioxide were depressed in infants who had had apneic episodes from which they had been resuscitated ("near-miss sudden infant death"). This important observation was investigated further to see whether infants at risk could be identified in the neonatal period by depressed responses to carbon dioxide, hypoxic responses, or . . .