Atropine Versus no Atropine for Neonatal Rapid Sequence Intubation

Atropine Versus no Atropine for Neonatal Rapid Sequence Intubation

The purpose of this study is to compare heart rate in infants who receive atropine as a part of their medication before intubation to those who do not.

To be able to find out , we need to divided babies into 2 groups;

group 1 : receives atropine + sedation + muscle relaxant group 2 : receives water or saline ( placebo group) + sedation + muscle relaxant

Then we need to compare heart rate during intubation and duration of intubation between the 2 groups.

We hypothesize that premedication for intubation with fentanyl and succinylcholine alone will maintain equal stability of heart rate and oxygen saturation without a prolongation of time to completion of intubation when compared to a protocol using atropine, fentanyl and succinylcholine.

In order to answer this question we plan to undertake a prospective randomized double blinded control trial of use of atropine as an adjunct for elective intubation of infants less than 46 weeks postmenstrual age.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Any infant (preterm and term) up to 46 weeks corrected age requiring (nonemergent) intubation.
• IV access is obtained
• Informed parental consent

Exclusion Criteria:

• Emergent intubation or need for resuscitation
• Congenital cyanotic heart disease
• Obvious airway abnormalities
• History of myopathy or family history of malignant hyperthermia or known history of phosphocholinesterase deficiency