Can initial resuscitation of preterm babies reduce the death rate from hyaline membrane disease?

Omer, M. I. A., Robson, E., and Neligan, G. A. (1974). Archives of Disease in Childhood, 49, 219. Can initial resuscitation of preterm babies reduce the death rate from hyaline membrane disease? Retrospective analysis of the case records of 465 babies with a birthweight between 10 kg and 2 0 kg, born during 1960-67, showed that 17 9% were described as 'blue' on arrival in the special care nursery, and that their mortality from hyaline membrane disease was 28 9% as compared with 6 * 8% in those described as 'pink'. The overall mortality from hyaline membrane disease was 10 8%. After the adoption of a policy of earlier use of oxygen under intermittent positive pressure, and more careful supervision of the environmental conditions during transfer to the nursery, the proportion of babies described as 'blue' on arrival fell to 5 4% (a statistically significant improvement), and the overall mortality from hyaline membrane disease fell to 6 * 5% (not a significant improvement on the numbers available so far).