Surfactant replacement in spontaneously breathing babies with hyaline membrane disease--a pilot study.

In a neonatal unit which, at that time, had no facilities for artificial ventilation, 14 newborn infants with birth weight greater than or equal to 1,500 g fulfilling the diagnostic criteria for severe hyaline membrane disease (HMD) were treated by tracheal instillation of bovine surfactant (200 mg/kg). Twelve of these babies showed increased transcutaneous PO2/FiO2 ratio within 2 min, the average therapeutic response being sustained for at least 72 h. One of the two babies who did not respond to treatment was later diagnosed as a case of group B streptococcal pneumonia.

Remaining sequelae with modern perinatal care.

The incidence of major sequelae-cerebral palsy (CP), psychomotor retardation (PMR), sensorineural hearing defect, and acquired hydrocephalus--has been studied retrospectively in a nonselected population of 6,5000 3-year-old children born in 1969 and 1970 at one Swedish hospital and treated uniformly according to the principles of modern perinatology. The total incidence of these four types of handicaps was 3.5 per 1,000 when children with congenital malformation syndromes, chromosomal aberrations, verified congenital viral infections, or toxoplasmosis were excluded.

Nutrition in low-birth-weight infants. III. Lipolysis and free fatty acid elimination after intravenous administration of fat emulsion.

Triglyceride linoleic acid in a fat emulsion for intravenous administration (Intralipid) was used as a marker in an evaluation of fat metabolism in newborn low-birth-weight (LBW) infants. Qualitative data on fatty acids as well as quantification of triglycerides and free fatty acids were obtained by gas-liquid chromatography. Influences on these parameters after a single and after repeated injections of Intralipid revealed differences between low-birth-weight infants appropriate-for-date (AFD) (n=8) and those light-for-date (LFD) (n=5).