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Compliance of the respiratory system in newborn infants pre‐ and postsurfactant replacement therapy
Author(s) -
Kelly Edmond,
Bryan Heather,
Possmayer Fred,
Frndova Helena,
Bryan Charles
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
pediatric pulmonology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.866
H-Index - 106
eISSN - 1099-0496
pISSN - 8755-6863
DOI - 10.1002/ppul.1950150408
Subject(s) - pulmonary surfactant , medicine , compliance (psychology) , pulmonary compliance , lung volumes , respiratory system , anesthesia , volume (thermodynamics) , lung , intensive care medicine , psychology , social psychology , physics , quantum mechanics , thermodynamics
Surfactant administration causes a rapid and dramatic improvement in gas exchange, but paradoxically, studies have failed to show an improvement in the mechanical properties of the lung. We have measured dynamic and static (passive flow‐volume technique) compliance before and after a single dose of bovine lipid extract surfactant in 22 premature infants with RDS. This had no effect on the measured dynamic compliance. In contrast, surfactant significantly increased static compliance from 0.41 ± 0.02 to 0.55 ± 0.04 mL/cm H 2 ,O/kg. This improvement was the result of a substantial recruitment of lung volume after surfactant administration. This led us to reduce ventilator pressures, which produced an increase in both dynamic and static compliance, but did not recruit additional volume. We conclude that surfactant causes a substantial increase in static compliance due to volume recruitment, which is consistent with reports of increase in the measured FRC. However, despite this improvement, the compliance is still below our normal range. © 1993 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.