History of neonatal resuscitation. Part 2: oxygen and other drugs.

Oxygen was used in neonatal resuscitation from 1780, within 5 years of its detection. It rapidly gained general acceptance and infiltrated delivery rooms and, a century later, neonatal special care units. After 217 years without scientific evidence, the use of oxygen for neonatal resuscitation has recently been questioned. Continuous distending airway pressure for oxygen administration was available at the beginning of the 20th century, but was not widely accepted. Alkali and analeptic drugs gained widespread but short-lived use after the Second World War.