Medical Complications in Premature Infants

Abstract

Severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia has become a major medical problem in neonatal intensive care nurseries, costing thousands of dollars per patient, many hours of care by physicians and nurses, and incalculable pain and grief to parents who watch helplessly as their infants struggle to survive. Its prevention or successful treatment would be a breakthrough in the care of very-low-birth-weight infants. Bronchopulmonary dysplasia is a symptom complex and not a disease with a single cause or a predictable natural history. The chief predisposing factor is immaturity of the lungs, which is usually but not invariably accompanied by hyaline membrane disease or other . . .