Bronchopulmonary dysplasia

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) or chronic lung disease (CLD) is a typical disease of extremely low birth weight infants (ELBW; birth weight < 1000g) who experienced adverse lung development but were not necessarily exposed to mechanical ventilation (“new” BPD). Originally, BPD was linked to acute respiratory failure (of various origins) and prolonged mechanical…

Apnea

Apnea

Apneas represent another important group of respiratory/ventilation dysfunctions in newborns (apart from perinatal asphyxia and respiratory distress syndrome). They are generally defined as a cessation of breathing movements and air flow for more than 20 seconds, thus often being accompanied by desaturation and bradycardia. Spontaneous breathing causes water in lungs to be resorbed into blood and…

Oxygen Therapy

Oxygen Therapy

We should attempt to maintain normoxemic oxygenation in order to prevent hypoxic injury (mainly in the cerebral tissue). On the other hand, oxygen should be carefully titrated to newborns, especially preterm, due to the negative effects associated with its overuse (reactive oxygen species = ROS).  Hyperoxia induces the production of oxygen radicals that subsequently trigger…