Severe neonatal pulmonary artery hypertension rescued with vasopressin

Abstract

An inborn term neonate weighing 2600 g developed meconium aspiration syndrome at birth. Baby had respiratory failure requiring high-frequency oscillatory ventilation support at 15 hours of life. He additionally developed hypotension with left ventricular dysfunction noted on point-of-care echocardiography (POCE), which required dopamine and epinephrine infusions. At 28 hours of life, he was started on inhaled nitric oxide (iNO), followed by milrinone due to hypoxaemic respiratory failure and the POCE revealed severe pulmonary artery hypertension (PAH). As PAH was refractory to iNO and milrinone, vasopressin was added which resulted in rapid improvement in oxygenation and normalisation of pulmonary artery pressures. Baby was weaned off from vasoactive support in the next 120 hours. Vasopressin proved to be the rescue agent in this case of iNO refractory PAH without any side effects during therapy. Baby was successfully extubated on day 18 and was discharged with a normal neurological examination finding.