A Descriptive Study on the Causes of Respiratory Distress in Neonates at a Tertiary Care Center in Nepal

Introduction: Respiratory distress is a common cause of NICU admission. It presents as tachypnea, retractions, nasal flaring, and grunting. Common causes of respiratory distress are transient tachypnea of newborns, pneumonia, respiratory distress syndrome, neonatal sepsis, birth asphyxia, and congenital heart disease. Limited studies have been done on respiratory distress in our setting. This study could enlighten the status of respiratory distress in neonates which could enhance understanding and help in tailoring the management of neonatal respiratory distress.  Materials and Method: All the inborn neonates admitted to the NICU and neonatal ward of NMCTH, within the above specified period, with respiratory distress were recruited in the study after being informed vii consent from the parents. The neonates with respiratory distress were diagnosed clinically by the presence of at least 2 of the following criteria: respiratory rate (RR) of 60 breath/ min or more, subcostal indrawing, xiphoid retraction, suprasternal indrawing, flaring of alae nasi, expiratory grunt and cyanosis at room air. The data was analyzed and causes of respiratory along with its risk factor, outcome, and duration of hospital stay were identified. Data was entered in MS Excel 2013 and converted into SPSS 26 for statistical analysis.  Result: The most common cause of respiratory distress in our study was transient tachypnea of newborns which comprised 82 (46.6%) of cases followed by meconium aspiration syndrome 35 (19.9%) and congenital pneumonia 21 (11.9%). The most common risk factor for respiratory distress was meconium-stained liquor followed by GDM.  Conclusion: In our study, we concluded that TTN was the most common cause of respiratory distress followed by MAS, congenital pneumonia.