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Objective: It has been suggested that desaturations and bradycardia precede acute life-threatening events (ALTE) and that ALTE is more common in the delivery room than later in life. However, frequency, duration and severity of desaturations in the first hours of life and additional risk factors have not readily been studied., Methods: Term neonates ( n  = 100) were monitored for the first two hours after birth by pulse oximetry. The impact of maternal and perinatal factors on the frequency and severity of desaturations (<85%) and bradycardia (<80/min) was evaluated., Results: Desaturations were detected in 30%, prolonged desaturations in 25% of infants. Desaturations were observed significantly more often in infants born by planned Cesarean section (pCs) compared to other modes of delivery (pCs 20/49; others 10/51; p  = .029). Desaturations were also more frequent in infants diagnosed with neonatal infection (NI) or infants born to a mother with gestational diabetes (GDM), although not significantly. No bradycardia <80/min was detected., Conclusions: In our collective 4% of healthy term neonates had prolonged, clinically relevant desaturations in the first hours after birth. The mode of delivery and maternal risk factors may increase the risk for these events. However, our cohort was too small to detect any ALTE or SIDS and determine potential risk factors for these events. Our data lay ground for a large-scale prospective trial to investigate whether the mode of delivery could be an indication for general pulse oximetry monitoring of newborn in the delivery room.

Background: Cardiopulmonary bypass during cardiac surgery is associated with metabolic changes after operation and results inter alia in increased levels of lactate and bilirubin. Since prediction of the course after operation has become very important for the management of an ICU and the patients themselves, we evaluated easily assessable markers (lactate and bilirubin), regarding their potential to predict mortality 90 days after surgery and the length of stay in ICU., Methods: All patients within a period of five years undergoing cardiac surgery were enrolled in the study. Among others peak levels of lactate and bilirubin within 48 hours after operation were recorded. A Cox proportional hazard model as well as a logistic regression model were used to predict mortality or rather length of stay in ICU., Results: Increased levels of bilirubin and lactate were associated with a significantly increase in mortality and length of stay in ICU (in a concentration-related manner). Interestingly, creatinine serum levels before operation showed a similar performance., Conclusions: Three easily assessable and cheap laboratory parameters (bilirubin, lactate, and creatinine) are useful to predict 90-day mortality and length of stay in ICU. These findings might be helpful to give patients a reliable prediction about short and mid-term-survival and to improve the management of an ICU.