Treatment of tetanus of the newborn.

Abstract

TETANUS of the newborn, formerly nearly always fatal, has been more amenable to therapy in recent years; antiserum, sedation, and penicillin have improved the prognosis.* The nutrition of these patients has continued to present a problem to pediatricians; at the meeting of the American Pediatric Society in 1954 the problem was referred to as very difficult. 8 It is therefore the purpose of the present report to point out the advantages of the percutaneous intravenous drip when combined with the "room within a room" protective effect of an incubator. Most of the baby's needs may be satisfied without repeated pain, handling, noise, flashing lights, or other undesirable stimuli. A decrease in number and intensity of such stimuli is followed by a decreased incidence of those events which are most likely to end the case fatally: tetanic convulsive or laryngospastic episodes. It also follows that the amount of sedation may be