[Surfactant treatment of newborn infants with respiratory distress syndrome primarily treated with nasal continuous positive air pressure. A pilot study]

Abstract

In this pilot study, Curosurf (200 mg/kg) was administrated to 34 patients with the respiratory distress syndrome in nasal-CPAP therapy with FiO2 requirements greater than 0.60 and/or TcPCO2 greater than 8 kPa. The surfactant was instilled during a short period of intubation or in a few cases via an intratracheal catheter (Ch. 6). The age of the patients on surfactant treatment ranged from two to 72 hours. Eighteen patients could be maintained on nasal-CPAP after treatment with Curosurf and only a few complications were seen in these infants. The other 16 patients subsequently required artificial ventilation and had a higher incidence of pulmonary and extrapulmonary complications. On the basis of these observations, we plan a randomized trial to investigate whether, administration of surfactant reduces the need for ventilator treatment and improves the odds for uneventful recovery in this category of patients.