Ventilatory techniques in the treatment of newborn infants.
Respiratory insufficiency has previously been a very frequent cause of neonatal death, especially in preterm infants. Since 1970 the introduction of several new ventilatory techniques has made it easier to ventilate even very preterm infants and has resulted in a marked improvement of survival of both term and preterm infants. In order to improve the ventilation in infants with severe lung disease and to lower the incidence of barotrauma, pulmonary air leaks and bronchopulmnary dysplasia, as well as to facilitate weaning from the ventilator and avoid asynchrony between the infant and the ventilator, several further ventilatory techniques have been tested in recent years. In this review ventilatory techniques either in current routine clinical use or under evaluation are presented. New interesting techniques such as liquid ventilation and unloading of resistive and elastic work of breathing are briefly described.
Sedin
G
G
Department of Pediatrics, Uppsala University, Sweden.
D006612:High-Frequency Ventilation; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D015931:Intensive Care, Neonatal; D011175:Positive-Pressure Respiration; D012121:Respiration, Artificial / Q000379:methods*