Care of infants with near-miss sudden infant death syndrome.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of home management of life-threatening apnea in infants with near-miss sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). A total of 84 infants were monitored with apnea monitors for an average of seven months (range 1 to 27). A group of 27 infants had episodes of apnea requiring resuscitation during home monitoring, all of whom were successfully resuscitated by their parents on at least one occasion using bag and mask resuscitation, and 17 infants required more than one resuscitation. Subsequent resuscitation was unsuccessful with four infants. Infants who experienced more than ten episodes of prolonged sleep apnea (apnea longer than 20 seconds) during home monitoring had a significantly increased risk of requiring resuscitation than other infants being studied. With the use of home monitoring of these infants and parents trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation, the survival rate was 93.4%.