Department of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital, Denver, Colorado 80218-1088.
We studied the effects of inhaled nitric oxide (NO) in 9 newborn infants with severe persistent pulmonary hypertension (PPHN) who were candidates for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation treatment. With low doses of NO (10-20 ppm) all showed rapid improvement in oxygenation without reduction of systemic blood pressure. In 6 infants treated with inhaled NO for 24 h, clinical improvement was sustained at 6 ppm.