skin perfusion

(1) Falls in skin po 2 but without falls in Sao 2 apnoeic pauses, or cardiac arrhythmia (considered to represent changes in skin perfusion).

A decision by parents to initiate resuscitation is subjective and some patients will have received this without a real need, as illustrated in patients whose subsequent and similar events were due to skin perfusion changes.

Of 77 patients with a diagnosis, two had disturbances in skin perfusion (one other patient had this, but was subsequently found to have fabricated illness); both had episodes of severe pallor and diagnosis led to reassurance for their parents.

The following diagnoses were suggested in the remainder: no changes in physiological signals in three, skin perfusion disturbances in three, severe hyoxaemic events (confirmed to be due to epilepsy) in one, suffocation in five, and fabricated data in five.