Respiratory distress in newborn infants

Malan, Atties Fourie

Respiratory distress in newborn infants

Doctoral Thesis

1966

Abstract

The greatest less of infant life occurs around the time of birth (Eliet, 1958) and the mortality rate for first day deaths has shown less improvement than for any other time during the first year (Arey and Dent, 1953). "Once the human feetus has attained a gestational age permitting extra-uterine survival, neonatal death may be more commonly associated with failure of respiratory adaptation than with any other adaptational failure" (Smith, 1964). About two-thirds of all deaths in the newborn are associated with respiratory failure (Briggs and Nogg, 1958; Drissell and Smith, 1962). Hutchisen et al (1962) stated that the pulmonary syndrome of the newborn is probably the major problem of present day neonatal paediatries.