The road to universal pulse-oximetry screening: are we there yet?

Congenital heart disease is the most common birth defect and represents nearly 40%of all deaths caused by congenital anomalies.1 Critical congenital heart disease (CCHD), which encompasses the more severe forms, is present in 2.5 to 3 in 1000 live births.2 In general, prenatal ultrasound or physical examination alone can easily miss newborns with CCHD.3,4 Failure to diagnose CCHD early in life can result in high morbidity and mortality rates, because symptoms frequently present after closing of the pulmonary ductus arteriosus, after nursery discharge. Pulse-oximetry screening is a low-cost, painless, noninvasive test that increases the ability to identify newborns with CCHD before they clinically decompensate.5–8