Background and purpose: Since the introduction of the prone position as a therapeutic maneuver in patients with lung diseases, numerous studies conducted on both adults and children have almost uniformly reported an improvement in PaO2 in the prone compared to supine position. This study was conducted to determine the effect of body position on the arterial oxygen saturation of healthy premature neonates in Vali-e-Asr Hospital, Zanjan, Iran. Materials and methods: In this clinical trial, 88 healthy premature neonates who were just fed and prepared for discharge were randomly selected. The neonates were randomly placed in either prone or supine position, and 30 minutes later SpO2 was measured. Then, the neonates were turned from prone to supine or supine to prone position, and a repeated set of measurement was made. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 11.5 for windows and paired sample t-test. Results: Among the neonates, 60.2% (53 cases) were male and 39.8% (35 cases) were female. Their mean birth weight and gestational age were 2330.9 grams and 34.3 weeks, respectively. Their mean postnatal age was 4.2 days at the time of the study. The mean SpO2 of these neonates during 30 minutes of supine position was significantly more than that of the prone position (94.5%±3.3 vs. 91.8%±5 P<0.001). Conclusion: In contrast to the previous studies, the findings suggest that prone position does not have any advantages over the supine position for the improvement of arterial oxygenation of healthy premature neonates. (Clinical Trials Registry Number: IRCT138905063900N2)

Keywords: Body position, arterial oxygen saturation, healthy premature neonates

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