Does premature infant inhale oxygen for a long time have harm to the body

summary

Premature infants have dyspnea or respiratory distress because they are not fully developed, especially lack of pulmonary surfactant, and often need oxygen or even ventilator replacement therapy. And whether long-term oxygen inhalation has a bad effect on newborns is something every parent must consider. The physical quality of premature infants is much different from that of full-term infants. Many premature infants will be given oxygen inhalation after birth. Oxygen is very important to save the lives of premature infants, but oxygen inhalation also has certain side effects. Let's take a look at the impact of long-term oxygen inhalation on the body?

Does premature infant inhale oxygen for a long time have harm to the body

First, oxygen inhalation in premature infants is easy to cause blindness. The main reason of blindness caused by oxygen inhalation is that premature infants with immature retina are prone to produce pathological changes. Because immature retinal vessels are extremely sensitive to oxygen, high concentration of oxygen will cause retinal vasoconstriction or occlusion, cause retinal hypoxia and ischemia, stimulate abnormal growth of retinal neovascularization, and stop normal retinal angiogenesis, which seriously leads to blindness.

Second: long term oxygen inhalation leads to thrombosis. The automatic ability of tracheal cilia is decreased, the mucus of bronchial cells is increased, the alveolar wall is congested and edematous, there are fibrous thrombosis in small blood vessels, the blood vessels have the function of carrying oxygen, once the thrombosis has a serious impact on the life of premature infants

Third: the effect of long-term oxygen inhalation on lung in premature infants. Long term oxygen inhalation can cause lung function and lung parenchyma damage, inhibit intracellular metabolism, DNA and ATP synthesis, inactivate many enzymes, thus affecting the normal respiratory function of the lung, and further cause more serious harm to the body of premature infants

matters needing attention

Therefore, in the oxygen therapy for premature infants, the doctor will generally control the oxygen concentration below 40%, and the time should not be too long. In addition, parents also need to take the premature baby to the hospital for ophthalmic examination on a regular basis to closely monitor the course of disease. Once the baby has signs of retinopathy, they should go to the hospital for examination and treatment in time. If they miss the best opportunity for treatment, they may lead to blindness.