Successful surfactant replacement therapy in two infants with ARDS due to chlamydial pneumonia

Abstract

We report two cases of adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) treated successfully with repeated doses of a bovine natural surfactant (Survanta). Two former premature infants developed severe respiratory failure as a consequence of a chlamydial pneumonia at the age of 3 or 12 weeks, respectively. As both patients were threatened by hypoxia in spite of mechanical ventilation with maximal pressures using 100% O2 and as the X-rays were compatible with the diagnosis of ARDS, we decided to perform rescue surfactant treatment. Following surfactant instillation, marked improvement in oxygenation and ventilatory requirements was observed. Within 2 h after surfactant replacement, the PaO2/FiO2 ratio increased from 52 to 84 (case 1) and from 35 to 94 (case 2), and the peak inspiratory pressure could be reduced from 47 to 40 cm H2O and from 35 to 28 cm H2O, respectively. Both infants received a second surfactant dose about 10 h after the initial treatment and survived without developing chronic lung disease.