The surfactant lining the walls of the alveoli in the lungs increases pulmonary compliance and prevents collapse of the lung at the end of expiration. In premature born infants, surfactant deficiency causes problems, and lung surfactant replacements are instilled to facilitate breathing. These pulmonary surfactants, which form complex structured fluid-fluid interfaces, need to spread with great...

Supplemental oxygen treatment in preterm infants may cause bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), which is characterized by alveolar simplification and vascular disorganization. Despite type II alveolar epithelial cell (AEC II) damage being reported previously, we found no decrease in the AEC II-specific marker, surfactant protein C (SP-C), in the BPD model in our previous study. We thus speculated ...

Background & aim:  High-risk pregnancies increase the risk of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) admission in mothers and their newborns. In this study, we aimed to identify the association between the recurrence of high-risk pregnancy and mothers’ previous experience of having an infant admitted to NICU. Methods:We performed a cohort, retrospective study to compa...

BACKGROUND Blood banks split an adult packed red cell bag (usually 250 ml) into 30 ml bags, making a total of eight neonatal "satellite" packs per donor. These packs are then "allocated"/"committed" to be used to serially transfuse a newborn. AIM To study transfusion requirements of premature infants in relation to their birth weight and thereby attempt to rationalise the method of dispensing...

1. Describe the factors that modulate the transition of pulmonary circulation from in utero to after birth. 2. Delineate temporal changes in pulmonary vascular resistance during fetal life. 3. List the substances that play a role in vasoregulation of normal fetal pulmonary circulation. 4. Delineate the role of nitric oxide in increasing pulmonary blood flow at birth. 5. Describe the common phys...

OBJECTIVE Mortality of very low birth weight premature infants is of great public health concern. To better guide local intervention program, it is essential that current and reliable statistics be collected to understand the factors associated with mortality of these infants. METHODS Data of very low birth weight premature infants admitted to a neonatal unit during 2002-2009 was retrospectiv...

Prematurity and low birth weight are important determinants of neonatal morbidity and mortality. A rising trend of preterm births is caused by an increase in the birth rate of near-term infants. Near-term infants are defined as infants of 34 to 36 6/7 weeks gestation. It is dangerous to assume that the incidence of hypoglycemia in the later preterm infant is similar to the infant born at full t...

This document reviews the main data relating to the structural and functional organisation of olfactory perception in the premature newborn. The chemoreceptive systems (main olfactory, trigeminal, vomeronasal and terminal systems) develop in different chronological orders but quite at very early stage during ontogeny. The premature newborn, despite being immature, has been shown to react to a w...

This paper is a narrative of some aspects of my work as a midwife with Médecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in West Africa. I was situated in an isolated north-western regional hospital in an area under rebel military control in 2004-2005 in the Côte d'Ivoire during the civil war which divides the north and south of the country. Access to health care is severely curtailed in this politically unstable...