[Therapeutic gases for newborns: recent developments and future perspectives].

In respiratory care some gases are generally used to support the ventilation. Though oxygen is the most frequently dispensed, other specialty gases has become common practice in the last years. This report reviews the literature concerning the four gases mainly utilized in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Inhaled Nitric oxyde is a selective pulmonary vasodilator largely employed in NICU, while the helium-oxygen mixture, also knows as heliox, is less common, although it is widely note both the capability of decrease the pressure and work of breathing necessary to ventilate the lung, and the improvement of gas exchange in particular clinical situations. Carbon dioxide is generally used in the management of a specific congenital heart defect, and xenon, already known for its aesthetic proprieties but rarely used, because of its neuroprotective effects, could play a role in neonatal hypoxia/ischemia syndrome.