Nitric oxide-still no consensus.

When NO became available for clinical use, it seemed to hold enormous promise for newborn infants with lung disease. With regard to the term and near-term infant, the role of NO seems satisfactorily defined: Near-term and term infants with hypoxic respiratory failure unresponsive to current therapy, excluding infants with diaphragmatic hernia, should have a trial of inhaled nitric oxide. In the preterm infant, the situation is less clear with, as yet, no specific indication identified.