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"The Apgar scoring system is a comprehensive screening tool to evaluate a newborn’s condition at birth. The Apgar score has been used worldwide as an index of early neonatal condition for more than 60 years. Newborn infants are evaluated based on five variables: heart rate, respiratory effort, muscle tone, reflex irritability, and color.
The Apgar score provides an accepted and convenient method for reporting the status of the newborn infant immediately after birth and the response to resuscitation if needed. The Apgar score alone cannot be considered to be evidence of or a consequence of asphyxia, does not predict individual neonatal mortality or neurologic outcome, and should not be used for that purpose.
An Apgar score assigned during a resuscitation is not equivalent to a score assigned to a spontaneously breathing infant. The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists encourage use of an expanded Apgar score reporting form that accounts for concurrent resuscitative interventions.
Introduction
In 1952, Dr. Virginia Apgar devised a scoring system that was a rapid method of assessing the clinical status of the newborn infant at 1 minute of age and the need for prompt intervention to establish breathing. A second report evaluating a larger number of patients was published in 1958. This scoring system provided a standardized assessment for infants after delivery.
The Apgar score comprises five components:
1) color, 2) heart rate, 3) reflexes, 4) muscle tone, and 5) respiration
Each of which is given a score of 0, 1, or 2.
Thus, the Apgar score quantitates clinical signs of neonatal depression such as cyanosis or pallor, bradycardia, depressed reflex response to stimulation, hypotonia, and apnea or gasping respirations. The score is reported at 1 minute and 5 minutes after birth for all infants, and at 5-minute intervals thereafter until 20 minutes for infants with a score less than 7..."
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