Premature babies may need check-up before air travel

Children who were born prematurely and have impaired lungs as a result should probably have their respiratory function checked out before being taken on a flight.

That's because more than 80 per cent of preterm infants with a history of so-called neonatal lung disease would require supplementary oxygen during air travel, according to a small study.

Air travel involves a low-oxygen environment, which is known to increase the risk that adults with respiratory disease will develop low blood levels of oxygen. However, relatively little is known about the oxygen requirements of infants with neonatal lung disease who are scheduled to fly.

To investigate, Dr G L Hall, from the Princess Margaret Hospital in Perth, Australia, and colleagues analysed data from 47 infants who had undergone low-oxygen challenge tests as part of a fitness-to-fly assessment.

As described in the medical journal Thorax, the children, who all had a history of neonatal lung disease, were given a nitrogen-oxygen mixture to breathe via a facemask, with the oxygen concentration set at 14 to 15 per cent, for 20 minutes. The normal concentration of oxygen in air is 21 per cent.

Initially, blood oxygen levels in all of the infants were at more than 95 per cent of the saturation point. During challenge testing, however, 38 of the infants had levels that fell below 85 per cent of saturation, a point at which supplementary oxygen would be indicated, the report shows.

The younger children were more likely to fail the low-oxygen test and require supplemental oxygen, the researchers note.

Further information is needed, they say, to determine "the clinical significance of failing current guidelines for safety during flight for infants with a history of neonatal lung disease."

- REUTERS