Perinatal asphyxia is the medical condition resulting from deprivation of oxygen (hypoxia) to a newborn infant long enough to cause apparent harm. It results most commonly from a drop in maternal blood pressure or interference during delivery with blood flow to the infant's brain. This can occur due to inadequate circulation or perfusion, impaired respiratory effort, or inadequate ventilation. Perinatal asphyxia happens in 2 to 10 per 1000 newborns that are born a terme. Jump to: navigation, search General Name, Symbol, Number oxygen, O, 8 Chemical series nonmetals Group, Period, Block 16, 2, p Appearance colorless Atomic mass 15. ... Hypoxia has several meanings: Hypoxia is the lack of oxygen in tissues, see Hypoxia (medical) Hypoxia is the lack of oxygen in a water body leading to the death of organisms, see Hypoxia (water) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share... Jump to: navigation, search Blood pressure is the pressure exerted by the blood on the walls of the blood vessels. ... Childbirth (also called labour, birth, partus or parturition) is the culmination of a human pregnancy with the emergence of a newborn infant from its mothers uterus. ... Jump to: navigation, search In the anatomy of animals, the brain, or encephalon, is the higher, supervisory center of the nervous system. ... The word circulation can mean the following: The transport of blood through the circulatory system. ... Perfusion is a physiological term that refers to the process of nutritive delivery of arterial blood to a capillary bed in the biological tissue. ... Jump to: navigation, search Ventilation good and very bad Ventilation is air circulation of air, typically between a room, a tunnel, etc. ...

An infant suffering severe perinatal asphyxia usually has poor color (cyanosis), perfusion, responsiveness, muscle tone, and respiratory effort, as reflected in a low 5 minute Apgar score. Extreme degrees of asphyxia can cause cardiac arrest and death. If resuscitation is successful, the infant is usually transferred to a neonatal intensive care unit. Cyanosis refers to the bluish coloration of the skin due to the presence of deoxygenated hemoglobin in blood vessels near the skin surface. ... The Apgar score was devised in 1952 by Virginia Apgar as a simple and repeatable method to quickly and summarily assess the health of newborn children immediately after childbirth. ... A newborn infant sleeping in his incubator. ...

Hypoxic damage can occur to most of the infant's organs (heart, lungs, liver, gut, kidneys), but damage to the brain is of most concern and perhaps the least likely to quickly and completely heal. In severe cases, an infant may survive, but with damage to the brain manifested as developmental delay and spasticity. The heart and lungs (from an older edition of Grays Anatomy) The heart (Latin cor) is a hollow, muscular organ that pumps blood through the blood vessels by repeated, rhythmic contractions. ... Jump to: navigation, search The lungs flank the heart and great vessels in the chest cavity. ... Jump to: navigation, search The liver is an organ in vertebrates, including humans. ... For the Physics term GUT, please refer to Grand unification theory The gastrointestinal or digestive tract, also referred to as the GI tract or the alimentary canal or the gut, is the system of organs within multicellular animals which takes in food, digests it to extract energy and nutrients, and... Kidneys viewed from behind with spine removed The kidneys are bean-shaped excretory organs in vertebrates. ... Jump to: navigation, search In the anatomy of animals, the brain, or encephalon, is the higher, supervisory center of the nervous system. ... Mental retardation (abbreviated as MR), is a term for a pattern of persistently slow learning of basic motor and language skills (milestones) during childhood, and a significantly below-normal intellectual capacity as an adult. ... Spasticity is a disorder of the bodys motor system in which certain muscles are continuously contracted. ...