Pediatric chest imaging.

Several new therapies have resulted in marked improvement in morbidity and mortality rates for neonates with respiratory distress syndrome and related disorders. These therapies include the use of exogenous surfactant to treat existing surfactant deficiency in babies with respiratory distress syndrome. Follow-up of patients previously treated with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for diaphragmatic hernia has shown continued pulmonary function abnormalities despite this therapy. Follow-up studies have also shown significant neurologic abnormalities. New uses of ultrasonography include scanning of the larynx and airway for evaluating retropharyngeal and parapharyngeal infections and evaluating perithyroidal inflammation secondary to congenital fistulas in this region.