AIM Preterm infants requiring surfactant replacement have been treated using the INSURE technique, which requires sedation and comprises tracheal intubation, surfactant instillation and extubation. However, minimally invasive surfactant therapy (MIST) does not require sedation, minimises airway injury and avoids placing positive pressure ventilation on an immature lung. This study compared the ...

OBJECTIVE Air leak syndromes including pneumothorax, pneumomediastinum and pulmonary interstitial emphysema are frequent in neonatal period. Mechanical ventilation with positive pressure is one of the most common causes of these syndromes. The aim of this study was to evaluate predisposing factors and incidence of pneumothorax in newborns under mechanical ventilation. METHODS This descriptive...

This multicenter study investigated the possibility of reducing mortality rate by administering natural lung surfactant additional to standard therapy to treat patients after cardiac surgery who developed an acute respiratory failure (ARDS/ALI).A total of 78 patients (1998-2002) diagnosed with ALI or ARDS were enrolled in the study; patients were considered for study entry only if they develope...

Thirty preterm infants weighing > or = 800 g with clinical and radiological evidence of respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) requiring mechanical ventilation with FiO2 of > or = 40% were given modified bovine surfactant (Survanta). They were compared with equal number of historical controls. Infants who received surfactant showed prompt and highly significant improvement in FiO2, mean airway pre...

BACKGROUND Surfactants are a class of amphiphilic surface active compounds that show several unique physical properties at liquid-liquid or liquid-solid surface interfaces including the ability to increase the solubility of substances, lower the surface tension of a liquid, and decrease friction between two mediums. Because of these unique physical properties several in vitro, ex vivo, and huma...

OBJECTIVE To test the hypothesis that preterm infants with infant respiratory distress syndrome who are treated with nasal continuous positive airway pressure (NCPAP) and surfactant administration followed by immediate extubation and NCPAP application (SURF-NCPAP group) demonstrate less need for mechanical ventilation (MV), compared with infants who receive MV after surfactant administration (S...

Although genetic factors are assumed to have a role in the etiology of respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), specific genes underlying this susceptibility are incompletely known. The most promising candidates are the genes coding for the lung-specific protein components of the surfactant. In congenital absence of surfactant protein A in mice, lung mechanics or surfactant homeostasis is normal. H...

RATIONALE Pulmonary Alveolar Proteinosis (PAP) patients exhibit an acquired deficiency of biologically active granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) attributable to GM-CSF specific autoantibodies. PAP alveolar macrophages are foamy, lipid-filled cells with impaired surfactant clearance and markedly reduced expression of the transcription factor peroxisome proliferator-activat...

The Journal of Clinical Investigation | July 2003 | Volume 112 | Number 2 Introduction Pulmonary surfactant lowers the surface tension at the air/liquid interface in the lung and prevents alveolar instability, small airway closure, and alveolar flooding. Surfactant is composed predominantly of phospholipids, especially phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylglycerol, and the surfactant proteins (S...