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Study says fetal oxygen monitors offer no benefit

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published November 23, 2006

A large government study has concluded that monitoring fetal oxygen levels during labor does not lead to healthier newborns or reduce unnecessary Caesarean deliveries.

Fetal monitoring has long been controversial. Since the 1970s, doctors have routinely listened to fetal heartbeats despite no real evidence it did any good. In fact, some research found that it increased the number of C-sections by making doctors nervously reach for a scalpel whenever the monitor showed an abnormal blip.

New technology that measures oxygen levels in the blood of a fetus was thought to offer a better way to tell which babies were truly at risk. In 2000, the Food and Drug Administration conditionally approved one such device, but required further study.

Published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the study was the biggest to date, involving more than 5,000 women, and was meant to be the definitive word. It was halted early because of overwhelming evidence the technology was ineffective.

"There's no reason to use it," said the lead author, Dr. Steven Bloom, chief of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. "We didn't find any evidence of harm, but why should we invest valuable health care dollars in something that doesn't have a proven benefit?"

In an accompanying editorial, Dr. Michael Greene of Massachusetts General Hospital, who had no role in the research, wrote that for once an expensive technology can be stopped before it finds its way into widespread use.

[Last modified November 23, 2006, 00:07:10]