• Fiona E Wood, Colin J Morley, Jennifer A Dawson, C Omar F Kamlin, Louise S Owen, Susan Donath, and Peter G Davis.
• Division of Neonatal Services, The Royal Women's Hospital, 132 Grattan Street, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia.
• Arch. Dis. Child. Fetal Neonatal Ed. 2008 May 1;93(3):F235-7.

BackgroundPositive pressure ventilation (PPV) via a face mask is an important skill taught using manikins. There have been few attempts to assess the effectiveness of different face mask designs.AimTo determine whether leak at the face mask during simulated neonatal resuscitation differed between a new round mask design and the current most widely used model.Method50 participants gave PPV to a modified manikin designed to measure leak at the face mask. Leak was calculated from the difference between the inspired and expired tidal volumes.ResultsMask leak varied widely with no significant difference between devices; mean (SD) percentage leak for the Laerdal round mask was 55% (31) and with the Fisher & Paykel mask it was 57% (25).ConclusionWe compared a new neonatal face mask with an established design and found no difference in leak. On average the mask leak was >50% irrespective of operator experience or technique.

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