Suctioning and Cerebral Blood Flow
1 Department of Pediatrics, University of South Carolina Medical School and Richland Memorial Hospital, 3301 Harden St, Columbia, SC 29203
To the Editor.
The article by Perlman and Volpe1 provides interesting information on physiologic changes associated with suctioning in the preterm infant. My observations during laryngoscopy and endotracheal intubation in preterm infants have also revealed a significant increase in arterial blood pressure which occurred before the onset of hypoxemia. It is possible that mechanical stimulation of the laryngopharyngeal and tracheobronchial regions as described in cats2 may arouse reflexes that increase sympathetic efferent activity, thereby contributing to the increase in blood pressure.




