The desaturating intubated neonate: is DOPE enough?

Neonatal staff are often asked to review mechanically ventilated infants who significantly desaturate. A systematic assessment is used to ascertain the cause and commonly doctors are taught to use the acronym DOPE (displaced, obstructed, pneumothorax and equipment failure) as an aide-mémoire to the assessment. This article questions how the availability of continuous waveform monitoring alters the systematic assessment of the desaturating infant.