Your March 2007 article1 on oxygen saturation validity was an excellent review of oxygen saturation and the limits of present technology; however, it ends with what I believe is an invalidated and potentially dangerous conclusion. The authors state without qualification that it is preferable to maintain SpO2 at greater than 95% in neonates “to prevent desaturation events.”1 (p176)

This statement flies in the face of virtually all current recommendations on the prevention of blinding retinopathy of prematurity in the very preterm neonatal population; I suggest a review and a correction. Most units have reduced their lower oxygen saturation limits to below 85% to 90% based on published reports of increased retinopathy of prematurity with increased oxygen saturations.2,3 

There is an ongoing clinical trial that should eventually shed more light on the exact targets, but for now oxygen must be used with caution, especially in...

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