Strategies to reduce hyperkalemia-induced cardiac arrhythmias in premature infants and newborns

With great interest we have read the paper by G.J. Kost1(Pediatrics l991;88:597-603) about critical limits, especially potassium in newborns, for emergency clinician notification at United States children's hospitals. Stimulated by a study about life-threatening hyperkalemias in asphyxiated newborns from 1990,1 we have analyzed specifically the results of another prospective study about laboratory investigations and clinical findings in asphyxiated (N = 98) and healthy (N = 87) newborns during the first 144 hours of life in view of serum potassium levels.2