Respiratory distress syndrome of the newborn--principles in treatment.

The cause of the respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) is unknown, hence management of the condition must at present rest on (i) recognition of the physiological disturbances present in the individual case; and (ii) correction of these disturbances, so far as this may be possible, in order that the baby can be given optimal conditions for survival during what is, in a proportion of cases at least, a self-limited illness. The function of the lungs being to take in 02 and to excrete CO2, the course of the respiratory failure seen in infants with RDS can best be followed by observing the changes in the amounts of these gases in arterial blood. A secondary function of the lungs is in the maintenance of normal pH by regulating the amount of carbonic acid in the body. In studying respiratory function in individual cases of RDS we have, therefore, largely depended on serial measurements of four variables-the 02saturation, Pco2, pH and bicarbonate of arterial blood. Material and Methods